158 COWPER'S GLANDS. 



length, measured in the middle line, and an inch and a half in 

 breadth at its base or posterior part. 



Cowper's Glands, 



Or, as they are sometimes called, the little prostate glands, 

 are placed immediately behind the bulb of the urethra, between 

 the two layers of the triangular ligament, yet to be described. 

 Their ducts are about an inch in length, run under the mucous 

 membrane of the urethra, and open obliquely into the canal 

 about an inch in advance of the glands. The size of the 

 glands is usually about that of a garden pea (see fig. 164*) ; 

 sometimes they are much larger. I have succeeded in two or 

 Fig. 164.f three instances in distending them, with mer- 

 cury from their ducts. Their structure and 

 office is the same as that of the prostate, (see 

 fig. 163); sometimes they are entirely deficient. 

 One or more small glands of a similar descrip- 

 tion, have been discovered by Littre in front of those of 

 Cowper, near the angle of union of the crura penis. They 

 have been called the glands of Littre, but are rarely seen. 

 Cowper's glands are placed within the circle formed by the 

 ejaculator seminis muscles, the contraction of which will assist 

 in discharging into the urethra the mucus they secrete. In 

 some of the inferior animals, they are vesicular, and have been 

 mistaken for another pair of vesicnlcB seminales ; in these cases 

 however, the parts may always be distinguished from one 

 another ; the vesiculae serninales are distended with fluid only at 

 the epoch of rut ; Cowper's glands are always filled with an 

 opaline starch-like mucus. 



Of the Penis. 



The penis, when detached from the bladder, and the bones, 

 to which it is connected, and divested of the skin which covers 

 it, is an oblong body, which is rounded at one extremity, and 

 bifurcated at the other. 



* Fig. 164, is a representation of Cowper's gland, cut open, showing its 

 similarity of structure with the prostate gland. 

 f a, a, Cowper's gland divided. , Excretory duct. 



