PROSTATE GLAND. 91 



duced to the apparent dimensions mentioned. When dissected 

 and stretched out, they are four or five inches long, by three 

 lines in diameter. 



There are also several pouches on each side of the long tube 

 which increase the number of cells. The convolutions^are 

 preserved by the intermediate cellular tissue. These bodies con- 

 sist of two coats : an external, which is a condensed fibro-cel- 

 lular substance ; and an internal, which is mucous, being a 

 continuation of the lining membrane of the urethra. They 

 are commonly filled by a drab-coloured thick fluid, supposed to 

 be a mixture of the semen, with their own proper secretion, 

 though, of this, Mr. Hunter doubted.* The excretory duct of 

 each vesicle is about a line and a half long, when it joins in the 

 substance of the prostate with the vas deferens of the same 

 side; a common canal (ductus ejaculatorius) is thus formed, 

 which runs parallel with its fellow, below the urethra.f 



The Ductus Ejaculatorius is about eight or ten lines long, and 

 opens by an oblong orifice, at the lateral anterior face of the 

 Caput Gallinaginis : it is larger behind than before, which gives 

 it a conical shape, and allows fluids injected to pass freely from 

 the vas deferens to the vesicula, and the reverse. 



The Prostate Gland (Glandula Parastata) is a body about 

 the size and form of a horse chesnut, fixed on the neck of the 

 bladder, and penetrated by the urethra, which traverses it much 

 nearer its superior than its inferior surface. The base of it is 

 turned backwards, and the point forwards ; its inferior surface 

 rests upon the rectum ; it is rendered concave by that circum- 

 stance, and its sides, in the distentions of this organ by fasces, 

 are overlapped by it. The Prostate has, posteriorly, a notch in 

 its centre, which divides it into two lateral lobes, and by raising 

 the Vesicular Seminales, we see where their excretory ducts pe- 

 netrate the gland, and separate from the body of it, the little tu- 



* Observations on the Animal (Economy. 



f In a dissection executed at the University by Dr. Joseph Togno, a muscle 

 was found on the inferior surface of the seminal vesicles arising from the pros- 

 tate-gland, and inserted into them. This is said to be a common arrangement in 

 some animals. 



