THE BLADDER. 



999 



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

 as the upper border of the symphysis pubis. When slightly distended, it has a 

 rounded form, and is still contained -within the pelvic cavity ; and when greatly 

 distended it is ovoid in shape, rising into the abdominal cavity, and often extend- 

 ing 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 distended, is slightly curved forward toward the anterior wall of the abdo- 

 men, so as to be more convex behind than in front. In the female it is larger in 

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



Suspensory 

 ligament. 



FIG. 557. Vertical section of bladder, penis, and urethra. 



than in the male. 1 When moderately distended, it measures about five inches in 

 length, and three inches across, and the ordinary amount which it contains is 

 about a pint. 



The bladder is divided for purposes of description into a superior, an antero- 

 inferior, and two lateral surfaces, a base or fundus and a summit or apex. 



The superior or abdominal surface is entirely free, and is covered throughout 

 by peritoneum. It looks almost directly upward into the abdominal cavity, and 

 extends in an antero-posterior direction from the apex to the base of the bladder. 

 It is in relation with the small intestine and sometimes with the sigmoid flexure, 

 and in the female, with the uterus. On each side, in the male, a portion of the 



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



