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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![cavity of the abdomen through life, never acquiring the disposition to change its situation; therefore the person naturally concludes that he has only one testicle ; and it can only be known that he had two by an examination of these parts after death; it is, however, possible that in some instances one may be wanting; but, if we are to reason from analogy, we must suppose this to be a very rare case; for it is a very common circumstance, that many quadrupeds have only one testicle in the scrotum; and in such as are killed for food, and from that circumstance come more particularly under observation, if this peculiarity has been noticed, we in general find the other testicle in the cavity of the abdomen; though in some instances they are both found lying in that cavity. When one or both testicles remain through life in the belly, I believe that they are exceedingly imperfect, and probably incapable of performing their natural functions, and that this imperfection prevents the disposition for descent from taking place. That they are more defective than even those which are late in passing to the scrotum, is to be inferred from what is very evident in quadrupeds, the testicle that has reached the scrotum being in them considera- bly larger than the one which remains in the abdomen. It is probable that this peculiarity is a step towards the hermaphrodite, the testicle being seldom well formed. I have only seen one case in the human subject where both testicles continued in the abdo- men ; this proved an exception to the above observation, since we are led to conclude that they were perfectly formed, as the persons had all the powers and passions of a man.* In such cases nothing is to be done by art, as it is not possible to give the testicles the stimulus of perfection, which I believe is necessary to make them assume the disposition requisite for their descent ;f and the ring of the external oblique muscle is perhaps less liable, in such instances, to allow a portion of intestine to push down, than where the testi- cles have passed through it; and such persons may probably be more secure from accidents of this kind than if they had been more perfectly formed. The testicle, in changing its situation, does not always preserve a proper course towards the scrotum, there being instances of its * [It seems remarkable, that with this experience Mr. Hunter should have formed, from inconclusive analogy, and promulgated an opinion tending to occasion so much unhappiness as that which attributes exceeding imperfection, and probable incapacity of performing their natural functions, to testes which in the human subject are retained within the abdomen. That there is nothing in such a situation which necessarily tends to impair their efficiency, is evident, from the number of animals in which they constantly form part of the abdominal viscera. And in those in which the testes naturally pass into a scrotum, their continuance in the abdomen, according to our author's own observation, is accompanied only with a difference of size or shape ; now we may readily sup- pose that this may influence the quantity, but not necessarily the quality of the secretion.] f [The case described in the paper on the vesiculae seminales, p. 61, seems to offer an exception to this rule; the right testicle had passed through the external ring, although the vas deferens was impervious.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21197635_0060.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
