242 



THE CAT. 



[CHAP. viii. 



tremity the external orifice of the urethra. The organ is held 

 suspended from the wall of the abdomen by a fold of integument 

 which is inserted around the glans, forming what is called the 

 prepuce (Fig. 115). When not sexually active, 

 the penis is bent backwards towards its ex- 

 tremity, a condition which makes the cat 

 " retromingent." A small bone traverses the 

 midst of the distal part of the penis, reaching 

 almost to its extremity. The surface of the 

 glans is beset with hard papilla?, the points of 

 which are directed towards its base. 



The corpora cavernosa and the corpus 

 spongiosum are each formed of a spongy mass 

 of fibrous bands, called trabcculce, containing 

 elastic and muscular fibres as well as nerves 

 and arteries. In the intervals of these bands 

 are highly distensible veins, into which a 

 certain number of arteries directly open. It 

 is the capacity for temporary distension by 

 means of such veins which causes these tissues 

 to be spoken of as "erectile" 



The urethra consists of a tube of mucous 

 membrane invested by organic muscular fibres. 

 It originates at the bladder, upon quitting which 

 it enters a gland to be shortly described as the 

 prostate. In the floor of this prostatic portion 

 of the tube is a small, ridge-like prominence, 

 called the veritm montanum, in the midst of 

 which is a narrow, slit-like depression, named 

 the utricle (sums pocularis, or vesica prostatica), 

 at or within the margins of the opening of 

 which the seminal ducts, or vasa differentia, 

 open into the urethra. 



The term "membranous urethra" is applied 

 to that portion of the tube which emerges from 

 the prostate gland. Its membranous part is 

 soon succeeded by its " spongy portion," i.e., 

 by the part which traverses the penis. Distally, 

 the urethra is lined by squarnous epithelium, 

 but elsewhere by epithelium of the columnar 

 kind. 



The urethra of the male thus transmits both 

 the renal excretion (which traverses its whole 

 length) and also the sexual secretion, which 

 traverses that part of it which is beyond the 

 entrance of the vasa differentia. 



The prostate gland (Fig. 115, p.) is a voluminous, prominent, 

 glandular structure surrounding the urethra at its exit from the 

 bladder, and opening into that canal by numerous apertures at the 



Fig. 115. MALE ORGAN 

 of GENERATION INFERIOR 



SURFACE. 



v. Ureter. 



rd. Vas deferens. 



p. Prostate. 



eg. Cowper's gland. 



e. Erector penis muscle. 



(/. Glans penis. 



?>. Bladder. 



1. One of the crura of 



the penis, with the 

 ischio - cavernosus 

 muscle upon it. 



2. Accelerator urina 1 . mus- 



cle which invests the 

 proximal, ventral 

 part of the penis. 

 A portion of the external 

 skin has been left at- 

 tached round the base 

 of the glans. 



