EXTERIOR OF PELVIS, ETC. 199 



of the testis, and the fascia propria or infundibuliform, 

 a derivative of the fascia transversalis. All these struc- 

 tures are interunited by a very lax cellular tissue, which 

 not only allows of their free movement over each other, 

 but over the cord and testis. 



The scrotal tissues are not very sensitive, and have 

 not much vitality ; consequently in erysipelatous inflam- 

 mation or urinary extravasation they rapidly become 

 gangrenous. When the urethra gives way from unre- 

 lieved retention, or from ulceration of its walls, the urine 

 is driven by the sudden contraction of the bladder into 

 the cellular interval between the scrotal and abdominal 

 fasciae, and its direction is limited by the attachments of 

 the fascia already named. Commencing at first in the 

 scrotum, it ascends over the pubes and abdomen and 

 cellular tissue of penis, but cannot descend down the 

 thighs, owing to the attachment of the deep layer of 

 superficial fascia along Poupart's ligament. In the case 

 of wound of the urethra from without, such, for instance, 

 as a blow in the perineum, not only is the urethra! tube 

 itself ruptured, but the fascia? enveloping it, often to an 

 unlimited extent ; hence the urine may follow almost 

 any course, and not restrict itself to anatomical relations. 



The course taken by urine is often rather theoretical 

 than real. For instance, in actual practice the inflam- 

 mation set up by the escape of urine, whether owing to 

 a false passage, or to the lesion of the urethral walls, 

 causes rapid perforation from gangrene, resulting in loss 

 of substance. Moreover, there is always a considerable 

 number of natural openings and passages, undescribed 

 by the anatomist, but readily found out- by an infiltrat- 

 ing fluid, through which it passes and frequently shows 

 itself in the most unexpected places. ( Vide Perineum.) 



