* +. Fe 
1118 UROGENITAL SYSTEM. 
behind the plane of the urethra, les embedded among the muscle fibres, and 1s 
composed of minute, slightly branched tubules, lined by a columnar epithelium. — 
In the upper portion of the gland the tubules are shghtly dilated and shorter than _ 
in other parts, where they are long and convoluted. The glandular tubules lead 
into the minute prostatic ducts, which open into the urethral canal as it traverses 
the prostate. These ducts (ductus prostatici) are numerous—about twenty in all | 
—and open for the most part into a groove on each side of the median elevation — 
(crista urethralis) in the posterior wall of the urethra (Fig. 767). | 
Vessels and Nerves of the Prostate.—The prostate receives it blood supply from branches 
of the hemorrhoidal and inferior vesical arteries, while the large plexus of veins which 
surrounds it, and into which the veins of the penis open, drains into the vesical plexus. In old 
people the veins of the prostatic plexus usually become much enlarged. The nerves of the 
prostate are derived from the hypogastric plexus. 
COWPER’S GLANDS. 
Cowper's glands (glandule bulbo-urethrales) are a pair of small bodies placed in 
relation to the second, or membranous, part of the urethra. They are each about 
» Obliterated hypo- 
; gastric artery 
Peritoneal-covered = 
surface of bladder ~ Urachus 
Vas deferens 
— Muscular coat of 
bladder 
Ureter 
Seminal vesicle 
Prostate 
Cowper's gland 
Bulb of urethra ————_=— 
Corpus spongiosum 
Glans penis 
e 
Fic. 765.—THE BLADDER AND THE STRUCTURES TRAVERSED BY THE URETHRA, Seen from the outer side 
after removal from the body. The bladder has been artificially distended. 
the size of a pea, and are of a yellowish-brown colour. Situated in the space 
between the two layers of the triangular ligament, they lie below the level of the 
apex of the prostate, and above that of the bulb of the corpus spongiosum (Figs. 
765 and 767). The gland is made up of a number of closely appled lobes or 
