THE GENITO-UEINAEY SYSTEM. 133 



'Che 6ciicrati\»c Organs. 



Individuals in the organic kingdom possess the faculty of 

 reproduction in order to perpetuate the species to which they be- 

 long. Milk-giving animals, to reproduce their kind, need the 

 concurrence of two individuals, a male and a female, who 

 under certain circumstances have intercourse, the male furnish- 

 ing the fertilizing fluid for the germ, which is supplied by the 

 female. The fluid from the male is called the semen. This 

 vivifies the ovum, rendering it capable of development. 



Cbc 6cmtal Organs of the JMalc. 



The semen, or vitalizing fluid, is elaborated in two glands 

 called the testes or testicles. ^ These are oval in shape and situated 

 in a cutaneous sack placed between the hind legs, which is called 

 ^the scrotum. In this sack they are separated one from the other by 

 means of a dividing septa, a prolongation from the peritoneum 

 lining the abdominal cavity. The testicles in the foetus are 

 formed in the abdominal cavity, descending into the scrotum a 

 few days prior to or after birth. In descending they carry their 

 peritoneal covering down with them into the scrotum, giving 

 them three coats as it were, one of skin and two of folds of 

 peritoneum. Frequently the testicles in leaving the abdominal 

 cavity are accompanied by a portion of the intestines, which also 

 occupy the scrotal sac, forming what is termed a congential 

 hernia. Arising from the testicle is a thin whitish cord, ^vhich 

 connects it with the glands or reservoirs placed on the superior 

 surface of the neck of the bladder. This is called the spermatic 

 cord. It is composed of nerves and blood vessels and a portion 

 of peritoneal covering, enclosing also the duct called the vas 

 deferens, which conveys the semen from the testicle to the glands 

 on the bladder, termed the vesiculae seminales. Connecting 

 the vesiculae seminales to the urethra are two short tubes termed 



