Observations on the structure and diseases of the testis / by Sir Astley Cooper.

  • Astley Cooper
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the structure and diseases of the testis / by Sir Astley Cooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    67/458
    If any one will be at the trouble to examine a foetus at the eighth or ninth month, soon after the testis has descended, he will find that the cremaster may be readily turned aside from the spermatic vessels and upper part of the vas deferens, so as to leave them free from it; it can also be separated from the epididymis and testis, excepting at the lower extremity of each of these bodies, into which, as well as to the lower end of the vas deferens, it is firmly inserted, forming the fixed point for the action of this purse-like muscle. In animals, in whom the testes remain in the abdomen, the cremaster still exists. I do not believe that it is the cause of the descent of the testis, nor that it is designed as a suspensor, but as a compressor of the testis. I will merely put it as a query if the descent of the testis may not be assisted by the pressure of the fluid, contained in the abdomen of the foetus, pressing upon the pouch of the peri- toneum which adheres to the gubernaculum, and which assists in forming the tunica vaginalis reflexa? If the testis has not descended at birth, it is often afterwards forced down either by a congenital hydrocele, or by a hernia congenita. The descent of the testis begins at the very earliest period of its formation ; and has perceptibly approached the groin more in the fourth than the third month, more at the fifth than the g 2