PROSTATE GLAND. 



151 



liquor prostaticus is not incompatible with the 

 existence of calculous concretions of the 

 phosphatic species in the follicles of the gland, 

 I have proved by repeated examination. 



Utriculus prostaticus. Vesicula spermatica 

 spurin. Vesica prostatica. Sinus pocularis. 

 At the anterior part of the most elevated por- 

 tion of the veru montanum, we find an open- 

 ing in the mesial line one-third or half a line 

 broad, leading backwards to a small bag re- 

 sembling a bottle in figure, of variable length 

 and breadth : it is generally known by the 

 name of the sinus pocularis, but has received 



Fig. 105. 



a, bladder ; b, middle lobe of prostate ; c, view of 

 the left side of the utriculus prostaticus ; d, bristle 

 in left vas ejaculatorium. 



also the designations here mentioned. In 

 most cases in which I have examined it, it 

 forms a canal, terminating in a blind extremity, 

 and usually is not more than three or four 

 lines long. I have found it an inch in length. 

 The opening, which faces obliquely forwards, 

 will just admit the point of a small catheter 

 or bougie. Some surgical interest is attached 

 to this structure, because it has been stated 

 by writers on urethral diseases that an instru- 

 ment is liable to catch in it when an attempt 

 is made to pass it into the bladder ; but I be- 

 lieve this very rarely happens, as the beak of 

 the catheter is usually kept against the an- 

 terior surface of the urethra, when it is made 

 to traverse the prostatic portion, and it is 

 therefore carried well above this little pouch ; 

 if, however, such an accident should be sus- 

 pected to have occurred, a gentle withdrawal 

 of the instrument and depression of the han- 

 dle are quite sufficient to clear the impedi- 

 ment referred to. But much physiological 

 importance attaches to this sinus, for reasons 

 which we shall presently see. Huschke de- 

 scribes it in the following manner: It com- 

 mences by a narrow portion, resembling a 

 neck, which forms about half its length, be- 

 hind which it swells out into a round mem- 

 branous vesicle or fundus ; between these two 

 portions there is often a constriction. It 

 penetrates the posterior surface of the pros- 

 tate gland, so that the middle lobe is situated 

 in front of its fundus. Its parietes are thinner 

 at the fundus than at the neck, and are 

 usually about one-fourth of a line in thick- 

 ness. On either side a vas ejaculatorium is 

 inclosed within its wall ; so that, in point of 

 fact, these ducts do not penetrate the glan- 

 dular substance of the prostate. Its walls are 

 composed of two layers, an external, fibrous 



and strong ; an internal, of a mucous charac- 

 ter : the latter is covered by small mucous 

 glands, arranged closely together, with open- 

 ings of about the twenty-filth of a line in 

 diameter. These glands resemble minute 

 warts, each with a small opening on its apex. 

 They cannot be confounded with the orifices 

 of the prostatic ducts, as these always open 

 external to this pouch, around the veru mon- 

 tanum. About its neck larger glandular open- 

 ings are perceptible. The nature of the se- 

 cretion of these glands is not known. 



Great physiological interest attaches to the 

 utriculus, from its having been supposed by 

 anatomists to be the true representative of the 

 uterus. Its homology with this body is evinced 

 by its shape, and position between the two 

 ejaculatory ducts, although the latter do not 

 open into it, as the fallopian tubes do into the 

 uterus ; thus it resembles the latter body by 

 its division into a neck and fundus, by its 

 being surrounded by the prostatic ducts, as 

 the uterus is at its orifice by the follicles 

 there situated, and by the veru montanum 

 forming to its orifice a prolonged inferior 

 labium ; and if, as some anatomists assert, the 

 ejaculatory ducts occasionally open directly 

 into the pouch, or previously unite together, 

 the parallel is infinitely more perfect. 



Morgagni has g'ven a description and figure 

 of the utriculus as he found it in five subjects 

 which he examined. Ackerman also described 

 it, and termed it uterus cystoides, and mentions 

 instances described by Petit, Sue, and Maret, 

 where it was an inch in extent. In one case 

 mentioned by himself, it was actually larger 

 than the prostate gland. E. H. Weber pointed 

 out its physiological interest as a rudimentary 

 uterus, and Huschke, has found it filled with 

 a yellowish liquid, in which he distinctly re- 

 cognised portions of cylindrical epithelium.* 

 The best description I can find of this struc- 

 ture, is that by Huschke who examined it in 

 the hare. He found it in this animal in the 

 form of a bottle, fifteen lines in length and 

 half an inch in breadth, extending behind 

 the bladder. It commenced by a simple 

 transverse fissure, from a line to a line and 

 a half in breadth, over the veru montanum. 

 It gradually dilated for about half an inch, 

 and becoming contracted, it was again dilated, 

 and terminated in a point rather to the left 

 side. The vasa deferentia were situated by 

 the side of the utriculus, and gradually ap- 

 proximating, they opened within a line of 

 each other in the utriculus, at about a line 

 and a half or two lines from its orifice, by 

 two large papillary openings ; so that when 

 air was injected by one vas deferens, it not 

 only escaped from the opening of the utricu- 

 lus, but filled its cavity, and passed into the 

 other. Huschke supposes that the utriculus 

 in this animal always contains semen, as the 

 existence of spermatozoa, and the appearance 

 of the fluid indicate. In an anatomical point of 

 view, he does not consider it at all analogous 



* See note to " Huschke, in Encyclope'die Anato- 

 mique.traduit de rAlleruand par A. J. L. Jourdau " 



