THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 



631 



with nitric acid of 20;>, appearing as fibre-cells 0-02-0'03 of a line long, 

 0-002-0-0025 of a line broad. 



The corpus cavcrnosiim urethrce {corpus spongiosum) is constructed 

 essentially in the same way as that of the penis, except that, 1, the 

 fibrous membrane, which in the bulb also forms the rudiment of a septum, 

 is much thinner, less white, and more abundantly supplied with elastic 

 elements ; 2, the intertrabecular spaces are smaller, being smallest in the 

 glans ; 3, and lastly, the traheculce are more delicate, and, beneath the 

 epithelium, richer in elastic fibrils ; having, however, in other respects, 

 the same structure as elsewhere. 



This is the place also to speak of the male urethra, which at the 

 isthmus is an independent canal, whilst at its commencement and termi- 

 nation it consists merely of a canal of mucous membrane, supported by 

 the prostate and corpus cavernosum urethrce. The proper mucous mem- 

 brane, beneath a longitudinal layer of connective tissue abounding in 

 elastic fibres, presents not only, as already mentioned, in the prostatic 

 portion, but also in the membranous parts, although less developed, 

 smooth muscles mixed with the usual fibrous tissue, disposed longitudi- 

 nally and transversely ; to which again succeed the animal fibres of the 

 musculus 7irethralis. In the pars cavernosa, also, the submucous tissue 

 still presents, here and there, muscles of the same kind, and at a certain 

 depth longitudinal fibres are always found, with a greater or less inter- 

 mixture of such, which, however, cannot be referred to the corpus caver- 

 nosum, seeing that there are no venous spaces between them ; but which 

 rather form a continuous membrane, bounding the true corpora caver- 

 nosa,^ on the side towards the mucous membrane of the urethra. The 

 epithelium of the urethra is formed of pale cylinders, 0'012 of a line in 

 size ; beneath which, however, are found one, or perhaps two, layers of 

 round or oval cells. In the anterior 

 half of the fossa of Malpighi exist 

 papillw 0-03 of a line long, and a 

 tessellated epithelium, 0*04 of a line 

 thick. In the isthmus and pars caver- 

 nosa urethrce are found, in conside- 

 rable number, the so-termed " glands 

 of Littre," J-| a line in size, which, 

 speaking generally, rank with the 

 racemose glands, although distin- 

 guished from them by their tubular 

 form, and the frequently much con- 

 voluted course of the glandular vesi- 



FiG. 261. — "Gland of Littre," from the /ossa Morgagni,in Man; magnified 500 diameters. 



* [Mr. Hancock published, in 1851, an account of tlie distribution of tlie organic muscular 

 fibres of the urethra, essentially agreeing witli tlie above. He states that this internal mus- 

 cular coat of the corpus spongiosum, or, as Mr. Hancock prefers to call it, muscular coat of the 



Fiff. 261. 



