Year: 1960
Type: article
Abstract: The asymmetry of the human scrotum is an intriguing morphological phenomenon, for which diverse views and explanations have been presented.Current standard English text-books of human anatomy (Gray, Cunningham, Morris) describe the left side of the scrotum as descending lower than the right to correspond with the lower position of the left testis or with the longer spermatic cord.This statement is only partially true, for while testicular position and scrotal form are certainly correlated, the left side of the scrotum is not always the lower.Furthermore, the statement is ambiguous in that it is sometimes assumed to be based on an embryological explanation, i.e. that the left testis descends in advance of the right, or that the left spermatic cord is longer because of the association of the left testis with the more cranially situated left kidney.For these claims we can find no substantiation in standard embryological treatises.Poirier & Charpy (1923) state that the testes of infants at the time of birth are situated at the same level in the scrotum, but later the left testis becomes lower than the right.They go on to say (and we give a translation of their account): 'One admits in general with Wincklemann (an observation well shown by sculptors before him)
Source: PubMed Central
Authors: K S CHANG, F K HSU, S T CHAN, Y B CHAN
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2230761247