URINARY SYSTEM. "Hi 



fundibula (each one contractino; in its course) converge towards a 

 common centre, and open commonly by three canals into the 

 pelvis, whose orifices are large enough to admit the small end 

 of a common blowpipe. The pelvis, then, is the common recep- 

 tacle of the fluids transmitted through the infundibula : it is a 

 cavity in the centre of the gland, almost surrounded by medul- 

 lary matter, and consists of a dense, firm, membranous sub- 

 stance, forming an extended sac, which is continuous towards the 

 interior with the infundibula, but towards the notch contracted into 

 a small funnel-shaped outlet, having one continued passage with 

 the ureter. This continuity of component parts has led some to 

 consider the infundibula, pelvis, and ureter, as one and the same 

 extended structure : whether this be the case or not, they pos- 

 sess a common mucous lining that puts on the same aspect, ex- 

 amine it in which of these parts we may. 



THE URETER (the tube conveying the urine from the 

 kidney into the bladder), emerging from the posterior end of the 

 pelvis, makes its exit through the notch, and then suddenly 

 turns backward under the posterior extremity of the gland, pass- 

 ing between it and the capsula renalis; it then takes its course 

 directly backward, a little distance laterally removed from the 

 bodies of the lumbar vertebrae, crossing obliquely the psoas 

 parvus and afterwards the great iliac vessels; here it enters the 

 pelvis by a sweep upward and outward (embracing within its 

 concavity the vas deferens and ligamentum rotundum), and be- 

 comes included within the fold of the ligamentum latum, by 

 which it is conducted to the lateral and superior part of the 

 bladder: latterly, it runs in close connexion, from the middle of 

 the bladder half-way to its neck, where it imperceptibly vanishes 

 between its tunics. Though we insensibly lose sight of the tube, 

 however, it does not end here ; for after having obliquely pene- 

 trated the muscular coat, it travels onward for the space of an 

 inch between that and the internal coat, and at length terminates 

 by piercing the latter in the same oblique line of dn-ection. The 

 diameter of the ureter near its origin is equal to that of a large- 

 sized black-lead-pencil ; from which it so insensibly diminishes 

 in caliber throughout its course, that we are only assured of the 

 fact by comparing the anterior with the posterior portion. That 

 part of the tube not included within the broad ligament, is in- 

 vested with cellular and adipose tissue binding it down in its 

 course. The ureter is composed of tiuo tunics. The external 

 one is thick, resisting, and longitudinally fibrous, and is believed 

 to be muscular: the inlenial is soft and fine in its texture; is 

 commonly rugose lengthwise; is loosely adherent to the other; 



