G. BAILEY. 
66 
and artn by the rectum, while with his left he introduced a spoon 
forceps (he had invented) through the inguinal passage, grasping 
the gland and safely removing it. Now, I undertake to say, if 
he, or any other man, ever removed any testicle that had not de¬ 
scended into the scrotum , with spoon forceps, or any other method, 
from or through the inguinal passage, that testicle was all the 
time external to the abdominal wall, and never within it ; and if 
that method could be forced or employed, the great liability to 
hernia would be the first thing that should suggest itself to any 
intelligent practitioner. We all know that in the foetus the tes¬ 
ticle floats in the abdominal cavity, being suspended by a peri¬ 
toneal fold, at the anterior border of which are enclosed the sper¬ 
matic vessels. To the posterior extremity of the testicle is at¬ 
tached a thick, round funicle, called the pilot, or gubernaculum 
testis , and when all normal conditions are fulfilled, the progress 
of development in the foetus pushes the testicle towards the in¬ 
guinal region, the gubernaculum acting as a guide, and descend¬ 
ing into the inguinal opening, draws the testicle after it, and in 
this way contributes its share in the formation and construction 
of the 4 vaginal pouch ’ in which the testicle is afterward con¬ 
tained. But in the ridgling, the internal abdominal ring being 
closed, the pilot is powerless to perform its mission; the inguinal 
sac, or tunica vaginalis , is never formed, and the testicle still 
floats in the abdominal cavity , although in an undersized and un¬ 
developed condition as compared with the normal and matured 
gland. The function of the testicle being to secrete the sper¬ 
matic or seminal fluid, which contains the spermatozoa, this func¬ 
tion is held in abeyance in the undeveloped testicles of cryptor. 
chides, and if both glands were contained within the abdominal 
cavity, he would be as impotent as the mule, or other hybrid an- 
mal, whose spermatic fluid contains no spermatozoa; and in the 
only instance in which I have ever had an opportunity to dissect a 
ridgling (who had died from the effects of an injury), I found the 
vesiculse-seminales, on both sides, in an atrophied and unoccupied 
condition, that afforded ample evidence their mission had never 
been performed. Believing it to be in the power of every one 
of us to benefit our profession, by the contribution of such facts 
