The Prostate Gland as an Endocrin 



Organ 



DAVID I. MACHT 



BALTIMORE 



Introduction 



Even a cursory examination of urological literature will reveal the 

 striking fact that while articles dealing with the prostate gland are in- 

 numerable, very few of these, indeed, throw any light on its function. 

 The vast majority of papers to be found in genito-urinary journals deal, 

 for the most part, with the clinical symptomatology and surgery of the 

 prostate gland, and occasionally with its normal and pathological anatomy, 

 but hardly ever will an investigator come across a physiological contribu- 

 tion in connection with this organ. In the present chapter the author 

 purposes to review briefly what little knowledge there is on hand concern- 

 ing the physiology of the prostate gland on the one hand, and the question 

 of its internal secretion on the other. In this connection, a brief review of 

 the literature on the subject will be first made and this will be followed by 

 an exposition a little more in detail of a number of original investigations 

 which have been conducted by the author in the past few years. 



Anatomical Considerations 



The prostate gland of an adult man is a compact organ, weighing, on 

 an average, about 30 grams, and having the form of a. large horse chestnut. 

 Its anterior portion is pierced by the urethra and the two vasa deferentia 

 traverse part of the gland and open into this pars prostatica of the urethra. 



The greater part of the prostate (about 5/6 of the total volume, accord- 

 ing to Walker) consists of from 30 to 50 lobules of glandular tissue. The 

 prostatic glands are for the most part tubular, with alveolar appendages, 

 and their ducts, some 15 to 32 in number, open in the colliculus semincdis. 

 In between the glandular tissue is found a considerable amount of smooth 

 muscle, as well as lymphatics, blood vessels and nerves. The innervation 

 of the prostate is a double one, the gland receiving fibers from the nervus 

 erigens and nervous hypogastricus. The finer nervous end organs have 

 been studied by Timofeew, who found in the prostate, in addition to the or- 



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