476 CETAOEA. 



Testes. — These glands are situated external to the kidney, but do not reach quite 

 so far as that organ and rest on the depressor muscles of the tail and on the transver- 

 salis abdominis. Their form appears to vary with age and functional activity. In one 

 specimen caught on the 14th August the testicle presents three surfaces and is deepest 

 from the dorsal to the ventral margin. The surface looking inwards towards the 

 middle line is broad and slightly concave, and the one external to it is convex and 

 narrowly crescentic and is directed ventrally, whilst the dorso-lateral surface is 

 also broad but convex, and marked at its hinder end by a deep pit. It is 4 inches 

 long, 3 broad across the concave face, and 2 inches in thickness from the ventral 

 to the dorsal surface. In this specimen, the head of the epididymis covers the 

 anterior and external surfaces of the upper extremity. The body and globus minor 

 of the epididymis are dorso-lateral and external. In an individual captured on the 

 18th July, the testicle is a flattened oval, or nearly so, with only two surfaces, an inner 

 and outer, and a continuous margin, its greatest thickness not exceeding 1 inch. 

 The head of the epididymis is confined to the upper extremity, while the body is 

 placed along the inner margin of the surface. 



The epididymis, when dissected off the testicle in both, is seen to be made up 

 of five distinct sections ; first, the head with the vasa efferentia, the former con- 

 sisting of two portions, one of which is smaller than, and overlays, the other ; 

 second, the body, which is thin and leaf-shaped ; third, another thin but irregularly 

 shaped part eccentric to the coil that connects it with the portions on either side 

 of it, and with a short process projecting from its extremity and applied to the 

 back of the testicle ; fourth, a long, rather rounded oblong part connected by a 

 pedicle to a short thick flattened trowel-like piece, which constitutes the fifth 

 and last division or tail. The total length of the masses of the aggregated 

 coils of the seminal tube is 16 inches, exclusive of the eccentric division, 

 and it is probable that if the whole were uncoiled that it would extend to 30 or 

 40 feet. 



Vasa efferentia. — These emerge on the internal surface of the testicle near its 

 anterior end, and the orifices of thirteen tubes can be detected, when the structures 

 are cut away close to the tunica albuginea. The vasa efferentia consist of four 

 kinds : first, a simple convoluted tube ; second, tubes with appended caeca ; third, 

 united divergently simple ducts with basal branched cseca ; and fourthly, blind cgeca 

 or aberrant vasa efferentia. The first is about 3 inches in length and is much 

 coiled ; the second may have one or more small caeca at its base, either communi- 

 cating with its canal or opening by separate orifices into the testicle. The third 

 form consists of two portions, first two vasa efferentia, one with appended caeca, and 

 the other simple and separate from the former at the point of divergence from the 

 gland, but united beyond the caeca in a common tube ; this afterwards forming 

 two ducts. Two of the caeca lie side by side with separate canals, but the one 

 next the duct gives off a branch which enters it below the point, where it unites 

 with its fellow. The fourth description comprises either simple or branched 

 caeca communicating with the testicle, each by an opening of its own. These 



