Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy : inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc. / by John Hunter ... ; with notes by Richard Owen.
- John Hunter
- Date:
- 1840
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy : inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc. / by John Hunter ... ; with notes by Richard Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![can readily be made to pass up from the scrotum to the abdomen. The place where the ligament is most confined, and where the testis meets with most obstruction in its descent, is the ring in the tendon of the external oblique muscle; and accordingly I think we see more men with one testis or both lodged immediately within the tendon of that muscle than who have one or both still included in the cavity of the abdomen, which I shall take notice of hereafter. After the testis has got quite through the tendon of the external oblique muscle it may be considered as now in a way easily to acquire its determined station, though it commonly remains for some time by the side of the penis,* and only by degrees descends to the bottom of the scrotum; and when the testis has descended entirely into the scrotum its ligament is still connected with it, and lies immediately under it, but is shortened and compressed. Having now given an account of the original situation of the testes, of the time of their descent from the abdomen, and of the route which they take in their passage to the scrotum, I shall in the next place describe the manner in which they carry down the peritoneum with them, and then explain how that membrane forms the tunica vaginalis propria in common, and the sac of the hernia congenita in some bodies. While the testis is descending, and even when it has passed into the scrotum, it is still covered by the peritoneum, exactly in the same manner as when within the abdomen, the spermatic vessels running down behind the peritoneum there as they did when the testis lay before the psoas muscle: that lamella of the peritoneum is united behind with the testis, the epididymis, and the spermatic vessels, as it was in the loins, and likewise with the vas deferens; but the testis is fixed posteriorly to the parts against which it rests, being unconnected and loose forwards, as while it remained in the abdomen. In coming down, the testis brings the peritoneum with it; and the elongation of that membrane, though in some circum- stances it be like a common hernial sac, yet in others is very dif- ferent. If we can imagine a common hernial sac reaching to the bottom of the scrotum, covered by the cremaster muscle ; and that the posterior half of the sac covers and is united with the testis, epididymis, spermatic vessels, and vas deferens; and that the ante- rior half of the sac lies loose before all those parts, it will give a perfect idea of the state of the peritoneum, and of the testis when it comes first down into the scrotum. The testis therefore, in its descent, does not fall loose, like the intestine or epiploon, into the elongation of the peritoneum, but slides down from the loins, carry- ing the peritoneum with it; and both that and the peritoneum con- tinue to adhere, by the cellular membrane, to the parts behind them, as they did when in the loins. This is a circumstance which * [This is the permanent situation of the testis in the Quadrumana, in which also, as in the human foetus at the period above mentioned, the tunica vaginalis communicates with the abdominal cavity.] * 6](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21131545_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
