196 



MESSES. BEDDAED AND TREVES ON THE 



understood from the accompanying drawing (woodcut, fig. 3), where the vesicula 

 seminalis is lettered V.S. and the prostate P. Each vesicula seminalis is a compara- 

 tively slender tube slightly swollen at its distal csecal extremity, and is closely adherent 

 to the prostate ; it is a matter of no difficulty, however, to separate the two by a 

 careful dissection, and we have assured ourselves that the drawing which illustrates 

 this anatomical fact is an accurate representation. On comparing the vesiculae 

 seminales and prostates of Sh. sondaicus with Owen's figure of the same structures in 

 Mh. indicus, it seems very easy to understand how such an error (if we are right in 

 supposing it to be so) may have crept in. The close union between the vesicula 

 seminalis and the prostate of its own side would easily lead to their being confounded, 

 and there is nothing in the figure which would render our interpretation of it 

 impossible. The late Mr. W. A. Forbes has described (Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. xi.) the 

 male generative organs of the Sumatran Rhinoceros, and his account would certainly 

 seem to confirm the accuracy of Sir Eichard Owen's: — "The vesiculae seminales 



Base of the bladder and adjacent structures. 

 P. Prostate. V.S. Vesicula seminalis. 



resembled in shape those described by Owen : they were 7| inches long, and 1 inch 

 across at the broadest part. The right vesicula had two, the left four, narrow ducts, 

 l|-2 inches long, which joined the vasa deferentia just before these entered the urethra." 

 This is the whole description of the organs, but they are not figured, and it is impossible 



