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The Testicular Excurrent Duct System: An Historical Outlook

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The Epididymis: From Molecules to Clinical Practice

Abstract

Research on the epididymis has had a long history. Mention of the epididymis can be traced as far back as Aristotle, 2,400 years ago (Orgebin-Crist, 1998). Not much new knowledge accumulated between then and the 17th century when de Graaf (1668), after meticulous dissection, first described the ductuli efferentes and reported that numerous ductuli connected the testis and the single, coiled tubule of the epididymis. Later, von Haller (1765), using a mercury injection technique showed definitively the patency between the epididymis and testis by way of the efferent ducts. In the same century, John Hunter made a retrograde injection of mercury from the human (and other animals) vas deferens into the epididymis and showed that the epididymis was a single, long coiled tubule (Hunter’s specimens can be seen in the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London). Hunter also apparently speculated that the epididymis can absorb semen (Allen et. al., 1993), although like other physicians/ scientists of his time, this observation was based more on intuition than on experimental facts.

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  1. Department of Genetics, Cell Biology & Development, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    David W. Hamilton

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  1. McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Bernard Robaire

  2. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

    Barry T. Hinton

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Hamilton, D.W. (2002). The Testicular Excurrent Duct System: An Historical Outlook. In: Robaire, B., Hinton, B.T. (eds) The Epididymis: From Molecules to Clinical Practice. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0679-9_1

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