Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy : inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc. ; Treatise on the natural history and diseases of the human teeth : explaining their structure, use, formation, growth, and diseases : in two parts / by John Hunter.
- John Hunter
- Date:
- 1839-1840
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy : inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc. ; Treatise on the natural history and diseases of the human teeth : explaining their structure, use, formation, growth, and diseases : in two parts / by John Hunter. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
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![the nerves of the obliquus internus and transversals muscles ;* for the same cause which throws the abdominal muscles into action produces a similar effect on the musculus testis; which circumstance appears to be most remarkable in the young subject. When we cough or act with the abdominal muscles, we find the testicles to be drawn up; the musculus testis and abdominal muscles taking on the same action from the same cause.f At this time of life the testis is connected in a very particular manner with the parietes of the abdomen, at that place where in adult bodies the spermatic vessels pass out, and likewise with the scrotum. This connexion is by means of a substance which runs down from the lower end of the testis to the scrotum, and which at present I shall call the ligament, or gubernaculum testis, because it connects the testis with the scrotum, and seems to direct its course through the rings of the abdominal muscles. It is of a pyramidal form ; its large bulbous head is upwards, and fixed to the lower end of the testis and epididymis, and its lower and slender extremity is lost in the cellular membrane of the scrotum. The upper part of this ligament is within the abdomen, before the psoas, reaching from the testis to the groin, or to where the testicle is to pass out of the abdomen; whence the ligament runs down into the scrotum, precisely in the same manner as the spermatic vessels pass down in adult bodies, and is there lost. The lower part of the round ligament of the uterus in a foetus very much resembles this ligament of the testis, and may be plainly traced down into the labium, where it is imperceptibly lost. That part of the ligamentum testis which is within the abdomen is covered by the peritoneum all round except at its posterior part, which is contiguous to the psoas, and connected with it by the reflected peritoneum and by the cellular membrane. It is hard to say what is the structure or com- position of this ligament; it is certainly vascular and fibrous, and, the fibres run in the direction of the ligament itself, which is covered by the fibres of the cremaster or musculus testis, placed immediately behind the peritoneum. This circumstance is not easily ascertained in the human subject; but is very evident in other animals, more especially in those whose testicles remain in the cavity of the abdo- men after the animal is full grown. In the hedgehog the testis continue through life to be lodged within the abdomen, in the same situation as in the human foetus ; * [The first lumbar nerve, which gives many small branches to the transversalis abdominis, sends off a branch which, in conjunction with smaller branches from the second lumbar nerve, forms the ' external spermatic nerve' from which the cremaster is supplied.] f [As the cremaster is supplied from common or spinal nerves, it is not sur- prising that it should in some cases, like the occipito-frontalis muscle, be under the control of the will. Mr. Marshall observes, in his work On Recruits, Some individuals have the voluntary power of contracting and relaxing the cremaster muscle : others can elevate the testicle on one side but not on the other; and I have seen a few persons who could voluntarily raise a testicle, but had not the power of letting it return into the scrotum.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21197635_0050.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
