THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 629 



ing a superficial lamella composed of cylindrical cells, a yellowish longi- 

 tudinally fibrous layer, which extends from the trigonum vesicce to the 

 caput gallinaginis, is, in fact, unconnected with the muscles of the blad- 

 der, and is composed, in equal proportions, of connective tissue with 

 elastic fibres, and of smooth muscles. To this succeeds a strong layer 

 of circular fibres of a similar structure, continuous with the sphincter 

 vesicce, extending as far as the caput gallinaginis, and which I term the 

 sphincter prostatce. Beyond these different muscular layers, we come 

 at last to the proper glandular tissue of the prostate, which consequently 

 occupies, principally, the more external portions of the organ, although 

 it is true that isolated lobules encroach upon the circular fibres; its 

 numerous excretory ducts penetrate the longitudinal and transverse 

 fibres, and open on both sides of the caput gallinaginis. The latter 

 consists of a grayish-red, tolerably dense substance, which may be very 

 readily split into fibres in the direction of the transverse diameter of 

 the organ, or more accurately described, radiates on all sides of the 

 upper surface of the organ, and is composed, in the first place, of vari- 

 ously-sized bundles of evidently smooth muscle, and secondly of the 

 glands of the prostate. The latter are 30-50 compound, racemose 

 glands, whose aggregate form is conical or pyriform, and which are dis- 

 tinguished from the usual kind of racemose glands by their more lax 

 structure, their evident composition of numerous, pedunculate, glandu- 

 lar vesicles, and the slight development of the extremely minute glan- 

 dular lobules, a condition which is partly connected with the abundant 

 fibrous tissue interposed between the glandular elements. The glandu- 

 lar vesicles are pyriform or roundish, 0-05-0-1 of a line in size, and 

 lined with polygonal or short, cylindrical epithelial cells, 0-004-0-005 

 of a line long, with brown pigment granules; whilst in the excretory 

 ducts, the same cylinders are met with as exist in the prostatic portion 

 of the urethra. The secretion of the prostate appears to be similar to 

 that of the vesiculce seminales ; at all events, according to Virchow, the 

 prostatic concretions, or stones, as they are termed round, concentric 

 concretions, O-03-O'l of a line, and more, in size, which are formed in 

 the glandular vesicles consist of the same protein-compound, soluble 

 in acetic acid, which is found in the vesicular seminales. The prostate 

 possesses a fibrous coat, abounding in bundles of smooth muscles, and 

 closely investing the glandular tissue, and tolerably numerous vessels, 

 among which numerous capillaries surrounding the glandular elements, 

 and a rich venous plexus under the mucous membrane of the urethra, 

 are deserving of notice. The course of the nerves above described, in 

 the interior of the prostate, is unknown. 



The uterus masculinus, or vesicula prostatica, situated in the caput 

 gallinaginis, in the middle, between the ductus ejaculatorii, presents in 

 its whitish-yellow walls, lined with a cylinder-epithelium, principally 



