GENERATION. 



is not known ; nor have we any cliemical anulyfis of it. In 

 many inCances it looks like a limple mucus ; and tliirc can 

 be very littlo doubt, that in all cafes the contei>ts of thefe 

 bags c'onfill cluL-fly of their own fccrctions. 



Tlie opinion, tjiiit the veficuhT; perfonn a particular fe- 

 cretion, was held by Haller : " Ihave," fays he, «' no ex- 



months before his deatli. On examining the body, the vefi- 

 cula- were both found nearly full ; more efpecially that of 

 the left fide, which I fuppofe might be accidental. But 

 upon examining the vas deferens of the left fide, where it 

 lies along the fide of this bag, and where it has a fimilar 

 ftrufture with the vcficula;, 1 found it filled willi the fame 



pcruiients of my own to prove that any thing is feparated in kind of mucus ; and this, I believe, is always the cafe, 



fhefe organs, and mixed with the fluid furniLd in the telles. whether the ttilicle has been removed or not. 



I fufpec? however, that a fecretion takes place here as in the " A young man, a coachman, who had a ddeaie m his left 



C-Jl bladder" (Elem. Phyfiol. t. p. 540.) Galen conceived leftlcle, had it removed, at St. George's hofpital, by Ivlr. 



thit thefcmen was generated in thefe parts; and Riol'.iu, Walker, in Auguft 1785; and in February 1786 he re- 



R nvfch, and S wammerdam, were of opinion that they added turned again to the hofpital, on account of uncommon pams 

 feimetliing to the feminal fluid. The point has been mod 



clearly proved by Mr. I lunter in a paper contained in his Ob- 

 fcrvations on the animal Economy, and entitled " Obierva- 

 tions on the Glands fituated between the Rcftum and Blad- 

 der, and called Veficula; feminales." His chief argument is de- 

 rived from the examination of the organs in pcrfons who 



have U>!1 (me oftheteites by accident, or in confequence of were exaftly fimilar, 

 difeafe. It is well known that this lofs does not alfetl the 

 • frcnerative powers, and that fuch individuals retain their 

 fexual appetites and the faculty of procreation. We may 

 confeqiiently prefume that they have afterwards had con- 

 neftion with women, and confequently had the adtion of 

 emiffion, which mull have emptied the veficula of the caf- 



all over him, and for which he lequeited to be put into the 

 warm bath. But as he was going from the ward to the bath, 

 he dropped down, and died almolt immediately. The body 

 was infpetted, with a view to dilcovcr the caufe of his death, 

 and u])on an examination of the veficidx, the bag of the left 

 fide was as full as that on the right, and the contents in both 



" In dilTeding a male fubjee'^, in the year 1755, for a fide 

 view of the contents of tl'.e pelvis, I found a bag on the left 

 fiele, lying contiguous to tlie peritoneum, juft on the fide of 

 the pelvis, where the internal iliac vefiels divide above the 

 angle of reflet'tion of the peritoneum at the union of the blad- 

 der and reClum. The left vas deferens was feen paffuig on 



trated fide, if it had contained femen ; and, as the removal to the bag ; and, what is very Angular, that of the right or 



of the teitismuil have cut off all fource of fupply from that oppoiite fide croffed the bladder near its union with the 



(niarter, it fliou'.d be found empty after death, on the fuppo- rectum to join it. I traced the left vas deferens down to the 



fltion of its contents being ordinarily derived from the tcllis. teiUcle ; but on following the right through the ring of the 



Such cafes alfo afford an opportunity of making compara- external oblique mufcle, I difcovercd that it terminated at 



tive obfervations between the veficula of tl.-j perfect and that once, about an inch from its pafTage out of the abdomen, in 



of the inioerfedf fide. a blunt point, which was impervious. On examining the 



"A man," favs Mr. H., "who was under my care in fpermatic cord from this point to the tefliele, I cou'd dif- 



St. George's hofpital for a venereal complaint, died there, cover no vas deferens, but by beginning at the tefticle, and 



and was difcovercd to have loft his right tefliele. From tracing the epididymis from its origin about half way along, 



the cicatrix being hardly obfervable, it mufl: have been re- where it lies upon the body of the tefticle, I found that it at 



moved fome confiderable time before his death ; and the firfl became flraight, and foon after feemed to terminate in a 



complaint, for which he was received into the hofpital, is a point. The canal at this part was fo large as to allow of 



convincing proof that he had connection with woman after being filled with quickfilvcr, which however did not pafs 



that period. I infpeded the body in the prefence of Mr. far, fo that a portion of the epididymis was wanting ; and the 



Hodges, the lioufe furgeon, and i'everal of the pupils of the vas deferens for nearly the whole length of the fpermatic 



hofpital. Upon dilTeCting out, and examining the contents cord of the right fide. On the left iide the vas deferens be- 



ofthe pelvis, with the penis and fcrotum, I found that the gun where the epididymis commonly terminates; and there 



vas deferens of the right fide was fm.aller and firmer in its was a deficiency of nearly an inch of the extremity of the 



texture than the other, efpecially at that end next to the ab- epididymis. I then diffefled the bag above-mentioned, 



dominal ring, near to the part that had been cut through in which proved to be the two veficulx ; for by olowing air 



the operatiein. The cellular membrane furrounding the duft from one vas deferens I could only inflate half of it ; and 



on the rifht fide was not fo loofe as on the left ; neither from the other vas deferens, the other ha'f. They contained 



were the veffels wliich ramified on the right veficula fo full the mucus commonly found in thefe bags ; but upon the 



of blood. But upon opening the veficuls, both appeared to moll accurate examination I could difcover no daft leading 



be filled with a kind of mucus fimilar to that which is found from them to the proftate gland, nor any remains of one. 



in other dead bodies ; and the veficula on the right fide was In this fubjeft it was evident that there was no coir.munica-" 



■rather larger than that on the left. Whatever, therefore, may tion between the vas deferens and epididym.is ; nor between 



be the real ufe of thefe veficula, we have a proof from this thefe bags and the urethra. The caput gallinaginis had the 



difieftion, that in the human fubjed they do not contain the common appearance, but there were no orifices to be feen. 



femen. The tellicles were very found ; and the duels from them to 



" In a man who died in St. George's hofpital with a very the epididymis were very manifefl, and full of femen.'' 

 laro-e bubonocele, the tefliele of that fide was difcovercd to 



have almoll loll its natural texture from the pren"ure of the 

 hernial fac ; and upon examining the tefticle with attention. 



P-30— 3-- 



Mr. Hunter obfervcs further, in fuppcrt of his opinion, 

 that theie bags are as full of mucus in boelief! much emaciated, 



was no appearance of vas deferens till we came near the where the perfon has died from a lingering difeafe, as in 

 er, where it was a'mofl as large as ufual. The veficula flrong rob ulf bodies where death has happened from vio- 



there 



bladder, wucie- le v\a3 d'liiiJiL txii iai^t ^ 



of that fide was found to be as full as the other, and to con- lence or acute difeafes ; and they are nearly as full in the 



tain the lame kind of mucus. old as in the young ; which moll probably would not be the 



" I extirpated the left tefticle of a Frenchman on account cafe if they contained femen." Ibid. p. 33. 

 of its bcino- difeafed. He was a married man, and died about The fecretion of the proftate is the lall ingredient in the 



a year afterwards, having been extremely ill for feveral fcminal fluid ; and it contributes very largely to the bulk of 

 2 what 



