DESCENT OF TESTES. 759 



In the human foetus this structure, called c gubernaculum testis,' 

 fig. 594, consists of a central axis of soft gelatinous substance 

 rife with nucleate cells and surrounded by fibrous tissue, which 

 soon exhibits the striped characteristic of voluntary muscle. Some 

 of these fibres rise from the bottom of the scrotum, 10, and traverse 

 the abdominal ring, 6, here diagrammatically indicated in Cur- 

 ling's excellent article ccxlii"; by 'Poupart's ligament,' 7, 7 : a 

 second series of fibres, 9, arise from ( Poupart's ligament,' and, 

 with the pubic fibres, 8, seem in many Lissencephala to be an 

 inverted part of the internal oblique and transversales muscles : 

 the whole, inclosed by aveolar tissue, and connected by a fold of 



594 595 



Diagram of the gubernaculum and testicle Diagram of the testicle immediately after its arrival 



previous to its descent, ccxui". in the scrotum, ccxlii". 



peritoneum to the psoas muscle, extends to the testis, 2. This 

 ' gubernaculum ' shrinking or contracting, or both, between the 

 fifth and six months of human gestation, draws the testis from 

 below the kidney, l, to the abdominal ring, 6, where it rests to 

 the end of the seventh month. During the eighth month it 

 traverses the inguinal canal, and by the end of the ninth month 

 has reached the scrotum, where it is commonly found at birth, 

 with the remnant of the scrotal part of the gubernaculum, 

 fig. 595, 2. The iliac, 4, and the pubic, 5, portions of the mus- 

 cular tissue have now become the ' cremaster': the bag of peri- 

 toneum, 3, 3, carried out with the testis, i, is converted, by 

 obliteration of the neck, into ' tunica vaginalis testis.' In scrotal 

 Mammalia, as a rule, it remains pervious, and it communicates 

 widely with the abdomen in periodical testiconda. 



