THE URINARY BLADDER 



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deeply in the pelvis, flattened from before backward, and reaches as high as 

 the upper border of the symphysis pubis. When empty and contracted, as seen 

 immediately after death (as after electrocution), the bladder is nearly spherical 

 in shape. When slightly distended, it has a rounded form, and is still contained 

 within the pelvic cavity (Fig. 1109), and when greatly distended (Figs. 1109 and 

 1111), it is ovoid in shape, rising into the abdominal cavity, and often extending 



FIG. 1108. The empty bladder. (Poirier and Charpy.) 



FIG. 1109. Modifications of form of the 

 bladder during distention. (Poirier and 

 Charpy.) 



nearly as high as the umbilicus. It is larger in its vertical diameter than from side 

 to side, and its long axis is directed from above obliquely downward and backward, 

 in a line directed from some point between the symphysis pubis and umbilicus 

 (according to its distention) to the end of the coccyx. The bladder, when dis- 

 tended, is slightly curved forward toward the anterior wall of the abdomen, so 

 as to be more convex behind than in front. In the female it is larger in the trans- 

 verse than in the vertical diameter, and its capacity is said to be greater than in 

 the male. 1 When moderately distended, it measures about five and one-half 

 inches (14 cm.) in length, four and 

 one-half inches (12 cm.) across, and 

 three inches (10 cm.) antero-pos- 

 teriorly, and the ordinary amount 

 which it can contain without serious 

 discomfort is about a pint. 



The bladder is divided for pur- 

 poses of description into a superior, 

 an antero -inferior, and two lateral 

 surfaces, a base or fundus, and a 

 summit or apex. 



Surfaces. The superior or ab- 

 dominal surface (Figs. 978 and 

 1087) is entirely free, and is invested 

 throughout by peritoneum. It looks 

 almost directly upward into the ab- 



1-1 , j j FIG 1110. Mesal section through pelvis of newborn male. 



dominal cavity, and extends in an (Coming.) 



antero-posterior direction from the 



apex to the base of the bladder. It is in relation with the small intestine and some- 

 times with the sigmoid flexure, and, in the female, with the uterus. On each side, 

 in the male, a portion of the vas deferens is in contact with the hinder part of this 

 surface, lying beneath the peritoneum. In the relaxed and empty condition 

 of the bladder a transverse fold of peritoneum (plica vesicalis transversa) is formed 

 on this surface. 



PROSTATE AND 

 SEMINAL VESICLES 



1 According to Henle, the bladder is considerably smaller in the female than in the male. 



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