The generative organs, considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically / a posthumous work of Emanuel Swedenborg ; translated from the Latin by James John Garth Wilkinson.

Date:: 1852

Credit: The generative organs, considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically / a posthumous work of Emanuel Swedenborg ; translated from the Latin by James John Garth Wilkinson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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$At length they reach their place of exit in the groin. Here the fleshy fibres of the transverse muscle lie upon them, and those of the inferior oblique^ leaving a little interspace between them^ transmit these vessels into their sheath. The part through which they pass in the transverse muscle, is the highest, the orifice in the oblique ascending muscle being lower down. Then about three lines lower still, they again pass through an oval aperture in the tendinous part of the oblique descending muscle; and lastly the sheath with its vascular contents, is carried over the OS pubis and into the scrotum; and out of its vessels and membranes makes the testis. . . . Throughout this course the spermatic arteries give off small lateral twigs here and there. Add to this that the three several apertures of the muscles through which the sheath passes, each bestow upon it a fine membranule ; but where the group of veins [vessels] approaches the testicles, the former constitute the corpus pyramidale. In its passage the spermatic artery winds a little in a spiral man- ner, and gives off twigs, which run in a straight and open course, are pretty ample [in proportion to the parent vessel], and derive the arterial blood laterally by true anastamoses into the accompanying vein. This is especially the case in the corpus pyramidale, where the artery near the testicle gives a branch to the lower and inner part of the epididymis, which branch spends certain twigs on the testicle itself, and afterwards terminates on the nervous tunic. Sometimes also the artery sends another branch to the top of the testicle, and constantly a large branch runs to the upper and bulkier part of the epi- didymis, where it ramifies and is distributed in all directions. Not to mention numerous offsets from the larger trunk, closely interwoven with the little veins in the pyramidal body, and after- wards spread over the compass of the testicle.—The pyramidal body—corpus varicosum or pampiniforme—arising from the back of the testicle, consists of innumerable veins communicating with each other, and which form a kind of net, and at length unite, and terminate in a single seminal vein. {Inst. Med.j n. 641—643.) 5. ScHURiG. Poupart makes mention of a girl seven years old who had no spermatic arteries or veins. Several other writers give similar accounts. The same thing has been noticed$