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Document Type

Article

Abstract

Eighty-two pairs of testes were obtained from North-West Indian subjects of Chandigarh zone on whom medicolegal postmortems had been performed by the senior author between 1971 and 1987. The ages of the cadavers varied from 1 to 25 years. The covering of the testis was removed and the vas deferens separated at its commencement. The volume of each testis along with epididymis was measured by the hydrostatic method supplemented by weighing. The volume of the right testis which was 1.4 ml at one year increased to 2 ml by 10 years and 2.7 ml at 14 years; thereafter there was a sudden spurt in the increase of volume at about 15 years when it reached about 13 ml. The volume increased to about 17 ml at 18 years and remained almost stationary up to 25 years, which was the maximum age of the subjects studied. A sudden spurt in the increase of the volume corresponds to a similar sudden increase in the plasma testosterone concentration in the boys at about 14 years (Winter and Faiman 1972). The study provides a reference data regarding the actual volumes of the testes in children and adults up to 25 years and is devoid of any subjective error. The study also shows that volume of the left testis closely follows that of the right but lags behind by a ml or so after the age of 15 years.

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