curved line, D, b, springs, and courses obliquely,
inwards and downwards, between the upper part of the thigh and the
pubis, to terminate in the scrotum. The external border of this line
indicates the course of the spermatic cord, D F, which can be readily
felt beneath the skin. In all subjects, however gross or emaciated they
may happen to be, these two lines are readily distinguishable, and as
they bear relations to the several kinds of rupture taking place in
these parts, the surgeon should consider them with keen regard. A
comparison of the two sides of the figure, PLATE 27, will show that the
spermatic cord, D F, and Poupart's ligament, C B, determine the shape of
the inguino-femoral region. When the integument with the subcutaneous
adipose tissue is removed from the inguino-femoral region, we expose
that common investing membrane called the superficial fascia. This
fascia, a a a, stretches over the lower part of the abdomen and the
upper part of the thigh. It becomes intimately attached to Poupart's
ligament along the ilio-pubic line, C B; it invests the spermatic cord,
as shown at b, and descends into the scrotum, so as to encase this part.
Where this superficial fascia overlies the saphenous opening, E, of the
fascia lata, it assumes a "cribriform" character, owing to its being
pierced by numerous lymphatic vessels and some veins. As this
superficial fascia invests all parts of the inguino-femoral region, as
it forms an envelope for the spermatic cord, D F, and sheathes over the
saphenous opening, E, it must follow of course that wherever the hernial
protrusion takes place in this region, whether at D, or F, or E, or
adjacent parts, this membrane forms the external subcutaneous covering
of the bowel.

There is another circumstance respecting the form and attachments of the
superficial fascia, which, in a pathological point of view, is worthy of
notice--viz., that owing to the fact of its enveloping the scrotum,
penis, spermatic cord, and abdominal parietes, whilst it becomes firmly
attached to Poupart's ligament along the abdomino-femoral fold, B C, it
isolates these parts, in some degree, from the thigh; and when urine
happens to be from any cause extravasated through this abdominal-scrotal
bag of the superficial fascia, the thighs do not in general participate
in the inflammation superinduced upon such accident.

The spermatic cord, D, emerges from the abdomen and becomes definable
through the fibres of the