192 



INSECTIVORA. 



thin partition, which is nothing else but the [terminations of the] ducts 

 of the above described glands, viz. what I found to be the vesiculae 

 seminales and prostates, and it has an opening into the urethra at its 

 end next to the penis, just where the ducts of the prostates enter. 

 This is something like the foramen caecum, but is vastly larger ; and it 

 does not seem to be a continuation of the urethra from the glans. The 

 ducts of the prostates enter into the urethra at the edge of its commu- 

 nication with the foramen caecum, which contains a duskish brown 

 liquor. 



[Another description.] 



"When the membranous part of the urethra is cut open from above, we 

 see a ' caput gallinaginis,' just as in the human subject. On this caput 

 a great many ducts enter ; viz. the remaining part of the urethra that is 

 between tbis and the bladder, which is just like the foramen caecum ; 

 secondly, the ducts of the large bags by two orifices a little more 

 posterior and anterior ; thirdly, the ducts of the prostates just in the 

 edge of the opening of the urethra, or rather within the edge ; fourthly, 

 the vasa deferentia just between the ducts of the bags. All these 

 enter on this caput, and the ducts of those [Cowperian] glands on the 

 thigh enter further back where the anterior urethra terminates in a 

 blind pouch, which is about a quarter of an inch beyond the opening of 

 the posterior urethra. These enter laterally, as it were, in the corner 

 where this urethra ends in a blind pouch. It is rugous when we open 

 the urethra on this upper side, this termination looks like a foramen 

 caecum, and in this cavity, near the bottom, laterally, enter the ducts 

 of the two glands that lie on the thighs, the liquor of which is of a 

 bluish -white colour. 



These three pair of bodies, viz. prostatics, those on the pubis, 

 [Cowper's glands,] and the two large bags, are made in one way ; that 

 is they are a bundle of tubes convoluted, much in the same manner 

 with the testicle ; but much larger, especially those I take to be the 

 vesiculae seminales. I should not take them to be vesiculae seminales, 

 because they enter by a distinct duct, for in this case there can be no 

 regurgitation. That these bags are glandular I infer for these reasons, 

 that the further you trace them from their opening, the ducts become 

 smaller by degrees, so that at the most distant part they are vastly small, 

 like the others of the same kind. 



In a young hedge-hog they are very small, in proportion to the size 

 of the animal, and so are all these parts, which would make me think 

 that they belong to the parts of generation or are relative to generation 1 . 



1 [The above remarks on the male organs are highly characteristic of Hunter's 



