SCROTUM. Latin, per metath. a SCOT. tum, e. pellis ; Kopmcoc, L'axcoc, Gr. ; der Hodensach, Germ. Neither the English nor French language appears to have retained any word exclusively significant of this part of the body. In the former tongue, the Saxon word "cod," a husk, or shell, or bag, seems to have been originally applied to it in common vvith other tegumentary tissues ; e. g. " peaseods." Subsequently, however, the meaning of the word was extended, and from the containing tissues came to imply the contents. It is now obsolete, and the only term popularly retained in both languages is " the purse," " ks bourses," either in allusion to the scrotum resembling a purse, or from its tegumentary nature (Obra, pellis).
The scrotum is the pouch or fold of integu ment in which the testicles are placed, where they occupy an external position. It is com posed of skin and areolar tissue, and is plen tifully supplied with vessels and nerves. It contains the testicles, their cremaster muscle, and serous membrane, together with their ar teries, veins, nerves, and efferent duct, and a considerable length of the spermatic cord, which continues these into the abdominal cavity.
The skin of the scrotum is continuous above and in the middle line with that which covers the inferior or urethral surface of the penis, and on each side with that of the lower part of the belly, the inguinal region, and the inner side of the thigh ; behind, it is continuous with the perineum. Its colour is darker than the neighbouring in tegument, and in the adult its surface is sparingly occupied with hair ; in health it is rendered irregular by the presence of nu merous rugm or furrows, the larger of which take a transverse direction. The median line offers a prominence vvhich extends back wards to the anus, and which, from its like ness to a suture, modern anatomists have named the raphe* (bap), sutura).
The areolar tissue of the scrotum is conti nuous with, or, in anatomical language, de rived froni, that of the perineal and inguinal regions. The more superficial or subcuta neous fascia, together with that deeper layer which is attached to Poupart's ligament and to the ramus of the pubes, converges towards the scrotum ; the two layers uniting to en sheath the spermatic cord and testicle of each side in a cylindrical prolongation, the apposi tion of the two bags in the middle line form ing a common partition, the septum scroti.
The texture of this covering of areolar tissue is peculiar, or even sui generis, and perhaps led to its receiving the appellation of the dartos (Mproe, tunica). It is very deli cate, ar.d highly elastic, and is usually of a reddish or pink colour ; but it is not unlikely that this phenomenon may be of post-mortem occurrence : and it has the additional pecu liarity of being destitute of the fat which is found in connection with this tissue in most parts of the body. Later researches have shown a still further difference, viz. the pos session of another structure — the unstriped or organic muscular fibre — which is either not present in the subcutaneous textures of other regions, or is in far more sparing quan tity. The contractility which is the function of these fibres is quite independent of the will, and is not only readily developed on the ap plication of a direct stimulus, but is also pro ducible by cold, and is associated with general tonicity of the system. And in opposite con ditions of warmth or debility, a relaxation of these fibres effaces the rugx which their con traction had previously produced.
The vessels of the scrotum are numerous, but of little surgical importance ; they are derived from those of the thigh and perineum. The superior and inferior external pudic, from the femoral artery, terminate by sending many small twigs to the integuments of the penis and scrotuin ; while, posteriorly, the internal pudic of each side sends forwards a superficial perineal branch, which likewise ends in these tissues, by ramifying and anastomosing with the preceding. The accompanying veins have in all respects a corresponding distribution.