1270 



THE URO-GENITAL SYSTEM. 



the ureters are placed about one inch apart, but when that viscus is distended they 

 are often two inches, or more, distant from one another. As the ureter pierces 

 the bladder wall the muscular fibres of the bladder and ureter remain quite distinct, 

 and so the ureter, remaining a thick -walled tubular structure, appears to pass 

 through a gap in the muscular wall of the bladder. The mucous coat alone of 

 the ureter becomes continuous with that of the bladder. 



The canal of the ureter is not uniform throughout, but is somewhat constricted 

 in certain places, corresponding to the regions where the ureter is most sharply 

 curved or changes its direction. These more constricted parts of the tube are 

 described as occurring one in the middle of the abdominal portion, one at the 



Branches of hypogastric artery Right ureter 



Obturator artery Nerve cord from hypogastric plexus 



Exterrtal iliac vessel 



Inferior 



epigastric 



artery 



\ 



'f? 



S aero-genital fold 



Obliterated umbilical 

 artery (lig. umbilicale) 



Plica vesicalis transversa 



Vesical arteries 



Ductus deferens Paravesical peritoneal fossa 



FIG. 



3. MEDIAN SECTION OF AN ADULT MALE PELVIS. 



The coils of the small intestine and of the colon which lay within the pelvis have been lifted out in order to 

 give a view of the side wall of the pelvic cavity. 



junction of the abdominal and pelvic portions, and one in the pelvic part of the 

 ureter. Also just before the ureter joins the pelvis of the kidney and just as it 

 reaches the bladder wall its lumen is usually somewhat constricted. 



In the female, the ureter, near its termination, passes beneath the lower part of the 

 broad ligament of the uterus, and lies to the lateral side of the cervix uteri and the 

 upper part of the lateral wall of the vagina. It is accompanied in the inferior part of 

 its course by the uterine artery, which crosses it on its anterior aspect not far from 

 its termination (Fig. 1002). Higher up it lies in the peritoneal ridge which forms 

 the posterior boundary of the fossa ovarica, a posterior subdivision of the obturator 

 fossa (Fig. 1002). 



STRUCTURE OF THE URETER. 



The wall of the ureter, which is thick and of a whitish colour, is composed of 

 mucous, muscular, and fibrous coats. The tunica mucosa or mucous coat possesses an 

 epithelium composed of many layers of cells, those nearest the surface being of 



