150 



PROSTATE GLAND. 



can be seen ; the cellular structure is rendered 

 perceptible by inflation from the ducts. Mr. 

 John Quekett has injected with coloured size, 

 and examined the tubes and follicles of the 

 prostate with the microscope, and represents 

 the latter as varying in size in different parts 

 of the gland ; he thinks that one-hundredth of 

 an inch is their average diameter, and has de- 

 lineated them as is shown in Jig. 104. Henle 



Fig. 104. 



has found them to be lined by a delicate pave- 

 ment epithelium, and at the commencement 

 of the duct he has seen a cylindrical epithe- 

 lium. Mr. Quekett has traced an intermediate 

 cellular or fibrous tissue, filling up the spaces 

 between the follicles or lobules, and connect- 

 ing them together. According to Dr. C. H. 

 Jones, " this principally consists of the white 

 fibrous element, but also contains numerous 

 bands, resembling closely those of organic 

 muscle."* The latter anatomist thinks that 

 the enlargement of the.gland in hypertrophy 

 of the prostate, is due to an increase in this 

 tissue: he regards the prostate as an assem- 

 blage of secerning follicles rather than as a 

 really conglomerate gland. 



The arteries of the prostate are usually 

 derived from the vesical and haemorrhoidal 

 branches of the internal pudic, and from the 

 middle haemorrhoidal of the internal iliac, 

 which, entering the gland on either side be- 

 neath its capsule, are distributed in the form 

 of a network on the parietes of its tubes and 

 follicles; the veins terminate in the vesical and 

 hsmorrhoidal veins : its nerves, which are ex- 

 tremely small, are branches of the hypogastric 

 plexus of the great sympathetic. The lym- 

 phatics consist of a superficial and deep set, 

 and pass into the hypogastric ganglia. It 

 happens occasionally that an artery of consi- 

 derable magnitude runs on either side of the 

 prostate, from the internal iliac, and becomes 

 the artery of the bulb of the urethra. This 

 variety has been seen by Haller, Burns, and 

 Barclay. I have witnessed a similar distri- 

 bution myself. Dr. Monro met with a case, 

 in which an irregular vessel came from the 

 internal iliac, passed along the lateral and in- 

 ferior surface of the bladder, pierced the ilio- 

 vesical fascia, ran along the lateral lobe of the 

 prostate, and divided into three branches, one 

 to the clorsum, one to the cms penis, and 

 another to the bulb. Other varieties in the 

 course and distribution of the branches of the 

 internal iliac, involving the prostate, have 

 been occasionally met with, and I allude to 



* Medical Gazette, Aug. 20. 1847. 



them here as points of great interest in 

 respect to the surgical anatomy of this body. 



Liquor Prostaticus. It is the office of the 

 prostate to eliminate from the blood sent into 

 its arteries a fluid called the liquor prostati- 

 cus. This has been examined microscopically; 

 but in consequence of the difficulty in obtain- 

 ing it in any large quantity, it has not hitherto 

 been made the subject of chemical analysis. 

 This fluid can be obtained after death by- 

 squeezing the gland, when it oozes through 

 the orifices of the ducts around the veru 

 montanum. It usually presents a turbid ap- 

 pearance, is of a thin milky aspect, and is 

 somewhat unctuous to the feel. Haller found 

 it in many cases coagulable by the addition of 

 alcohol : it contains, according to Krause, 

 muddy flakes, or globules, filled with minute 

 granules, varying from -^^ to ^1^ of a line in 

 diameter. Prevost and Dumas examined the 

 liquor prostaticus of the dog, cat, hedgehog, 

 and rabbit : they found it to contain globules 

 like milk-globules. Cuvier remarked in the 

 fluid of the hedgehog, numerous ovoid and 

 spherical vesicles, others oblong and conical 

 in shape : many of the vesicles presented a 

 stellate aspect, and contained a central nu- 

 cleus. I have carefully examined, in many 

 cases, the prostatic secretion of the human 

 subject, in as fresh a state as I could possibly 

 procure it. I have found it of a milky aspect, 

 like a very weak mixture of milk with water. 

 In some cases, I have seen it of a consistence 

 more resembling cream. I consider the for- 

 mer state to represent the healthy fluid. 

 Examined with the microscope, it was found 

 to contain numerous molecules, epithelial 

 cells, both pavement and cylindrical, in va- 

 rious stages of formation, and granular nuclei 

 of about 0'0036 of a line in diameter. In by 

 far the greater number of instances in which I 

 have examined it, I have been rather surprised 

 to find it give feeble but distinct signs of 

 acidity when tested by litmus paper. I 

 thought it not unlikely that the apparent 

 acidity of the prostatic secretion was due to 

 the cadaveric infiltration of urine through the 

 tissue of the gland ; but I adopted every pre- 

 caution, by carefully and repeatedly washing 

 the surface of the bladder and urethra, to ob- 

 viate this source of fallacy, and the result was 

 still the same. I have found a similar reaction 

 in the prostatic secretion of an old man, in 

 whom the gland was greatly hypertrophied ; 

 and where the ducts and follicles were dis- 

 tended with an opaque creamy-looking fluid, 

 such as is often seen after death. The ap- 

 pearance of the liquor prostaticus may be, 

 and probably is, very different after death to 

 what it is during life. There is every reason 

 to believe that it is secreted more clear and 

 transparent, and it most likely owes much of 

 its turbid appearance to the admixture of a 

 large number of minute epithelial cells. I 

 regret that I have nothing to offer as to its 

 chemical constituents, as it is not possible to 

 collect more than two or three drops at a 

 time, a quantity too small to submit to che- 

 mical investigation. That the acidity of the 



