•280 URINARY SYSTEM. 



comes thick in substance, and exhibits no vacuity internally : 

 in fact, it is (in that state) a httle, white, round, firm, and, I 

 may add, sohd body. 



Volume. — Its capacity will vary much in different subjects ; 

 and this we have some reason to ascribe (from a correlative fact 

 in human anatomy) to the habit the animal had of retaining the 

 urine : for it is found that women (whom we know from mo- 

 tives of delicacy are oftentimes compelled to restrain their in- 

 clinations to void their urine) have generally larger bladders 

 than men; and now and then in such subjects, bladders are 

 found of extraordinary volume. 



Coiiiiexioiis. — The bladder is connected by loose cellular adhe- 

 sions to the pubes, the walls of the pelvis, the rectum in the 

 male, the vagina in the female ; and is kept and balanced in its 

 proper place and position by two broad productions of perito- 

 neum expanded across the cavity from its sides to the walls of 

 the pelvis, called its broad /igameuts. These ligaments are 

 formed thus : — the peritoneum being reflected upward from the 

 recti muscles upon the body of the bladder, about its middle, 

 proceeds forward upon the fundus, then turns back again and 

 covers still more extensively the upper surface ; at the sides, 

 these (under and upper) layers of the membrane, meeting to- 

 gether, unite, and afterwards proceed in union to the walls of 

 the pelvis, where they once more split and take opposite direc- 

 tions. The middle portion of the upper layer of peritoneum is 

 reflected upward from the hind part of the body of the bladder 

 upon the rectum in the male, the vagina in the female, and 

 thus a peritoneal pouch is formed between the two. In addi- 

 tion to these connexions, the neck of the bladder is attached to 

 the pubes by a thin fibrous expansion, denominated the tri- 

 angular ligameut ; and the fundus receives the insertion of two 

 round chords which run within the folds of the broad ligaments, 

 named the round ligaments. 



Division. — The bladder may be distinguished into \i& fundus, 

 body, and cervix or iteck. The fundus is the round prominent 

 part presented forward, completely covered by peritoneum, occa- 

 sionally protruding into the abdomen, receiving the attachments 

 of the round ligaments, and the insertion of the degenerated 

 urachus (which is in the foetus a urinary conduit continued 

 along the umbilical chord to the membranes of the womb). The 

 body is the bulky or capacious part of the bag. Only one-third 

 of its under surface is covered by peritoneum; nearly the whole 

 of its upper. It is supported by the broad ligaments ; has along 

 its sides in the male the vesiculae seminales and vasa deferentia ; 

 and behind, grows suddenly contracted, and ends in the neck. 



