THE HUMAN PROSTATE GLAND 321 



The anterior lobe consists of seven tubules which are very much 

 smaller than those making up the other lobes and very few 

 branches are sent off. There seems to be a shrinking into insig- 

 nificance of these tubules as far as a comparison with the size of 

 similar structures in the younger fetuses is concerned. 



The seminal vesicles are very tortuous in this series. The 

 ejaculatory ducts seem to be of normal size but in their course 

 through the wall of the urethra they are separated by an utriculus 

 prostaticus, the upper solid end of which is seen in fig. 6. This 

 structure is a little larger in size than the ejaculatory ducts in 

 most of the specimens studied, but in this case it is about twenty 

 times as large an an ejaculatory duct and at least three times as 

 large as the lumen of the urethra. It is as usual contained within 

 the same muscular sheath as the ejaculatory ducts as shown in 

 fig. 4 but here the muscular coat is very much thinned out. The 

 utricle extends obliquely through the urethral wall accompanied 

 by the ejaculatory ducts until one part of its circumference is 

 quite close to the floor of the urethra, where a small part about 

 the size of a normal utricle separates from the main part of the 

 organ and runs along under the floor of the urethra for some dis- 

 tance below the openings of the ejaculatory ducts. It then opens 

 in the midline on the crest of the verummontanum. The larger 

 part of the lumen runs forward on the same plane that it occupied 

 above and stops rather sharply in a blind end. There have not 

 been seen either prostatic or ejaculatory ducts opening into the 

 utriculus prostaticus of this or any other specimen studied. 



The ejaculatory ducts are observed to run obliquely through 

 the prostate until they approach quite close to the urethra in the 

 crest of the verum montanum; then they run parallel with the 

 axis of the urethra for a considerable distance (300/x in this case) , 

 ultimately opening on a slant into the prostatic urethra on each 

 side of the verum montanum, so that any pressure within the ure- 

 thra would tend to close them very effectually and in a manner 

 similar to that observed in the ureters in cases of distention of the 

 bladder. 



The verum montanum is formed in this case as already described 

 by the ingrowth of the utriculus prostaticus and ejaculatory ducts, 



