1. Arrest And Excess Of Development

The vesiculae seminales are absent when the testicles are deficient, and are more or less abortive when the testicles are imperfectly developed.

It is stated that they have been found increased in number in cases in which there were supernumerary testicles.

2. Deviations Of Size. Of Calibre

Under this head we class, on the one hand, the dilatations of the vesiculae seminales and ductus ejacu-latorii, resulting from continued catarrhal irritation, which, according to Lallemand, accompanies spontaneous discharges of semen, and on the other, the atrophy and obliteration of the vesiculae seminales, which may, but does not necessarily, follow removal or atrophy of the testicle.

3. Diseases Of The Tissues

1. Inflammation

We not unfrequently have opportunities of observing, in the dead subject, the effects of chronic catarrh and its sequelae, upon the vesiculse seminales; they are, especially, tumefaction and relaxation of their mucous membrane; secretion of a grayish or yellow purulent mucus (blennorrhcea), dilatation, and, finally, thickening of the parietes. In rare cases we find those portions of the inner surface in which the mucous membrane has been destroyed by suppuration, covered by a whitish or slate-colored, reticular pulp, of a cellulo-fibrous texture, the parietes considerably thickened and cartilaginous, and the cavity contracted and obliterated. This inflammation as rarely degenerates into ulcerative perforation of the vesiculse seminales, the formation of abscesses in their cellulo-fibrous nidus, into destruction of a neighboring coil, or communication of two contiguous tubuli.

Chronic catarrh occurs chiefly in advanced age, accompanying mechanical hyperaemia of the pelvic veins, stasis, varicosity, and the formation of phlebolithes; as a consequence of chronic vesical catarrh, as a result of repeated gonorrhoeal catarrh of the urethra and the neck of the bladder, of excessive venery, and especially of masturbation.

2. We find a low state of irritation developed in a similar manner in the cellulo-fibrous substratum of the vesiculse seminales; this induces condensation and hypertrophy in the latter, and causes its adhesion to the vesiculse seminales, which thus become fixed.

4. Morbid Growths

1. Bony matter is sometimes deposited in the indurated coats of the vesiculae seminales, as well as in the terminal portion of the vas deferens (ossification).

2. Tubercle

Tuberculosis of the mucous membrane of the vesiculse seminales is not an unfrequent disease. When seen in the dead subject, the disease has generally attained such a degree that the mucous membrane appears converted into a thick, yellow, cheesy, lardaceous, fissured, purulent layer of tubercular matter, filling up and closing the passage of the seminal vesicles, whilst the superficial layer of their coats is considerably thickened, and infiltrated with a lardaceous substance. The external investment occasionally becomes the seat of tubercular deposit, and, as this fuses, suppuration and perforation of the seminal vesicles are induced.

Tubercular disease is associated with tubercle of the prostate, the testicle, and the lymphatic glands that belong to the sexual apparatus, as well as with tubercle of the uropoietic system. It prevails during the prime of life, and appears never to occur before puberty; in this it differs essentially from tubercular disease of the uterus and the Fallopian tubes.

3. Cancer affects the vesiculoe seminales only by extension from neighboring organs.

5. Anomalies Of The Contents Of The Vesicular Seminales

The seminal fluid may present various irregularities; it is found mixed with a greater or less quantity of colorless, vitreous, grayish, yellow, puriform mucus, and with pus; if the inner surface of the vesiculae seminales has undergone any change of texture there may be hemorrhagic exudation, tubercular pus, cancerous sanies, and, lastly, calculous concretions. The pus and sanies may, as in the ductus ejaculatorii, be introduced from neighboring abscesses, especially of the prostate, after perforation has taken place.