946 



THE URINARY BLADDER. 



where it becomes blended with the dense fibrous tissue found in that situa- 

 tion. The urachus, which forms in the early foetal state a tubular com- 

 munication between the urinary bladder and the allantoid vesicle, preserves, 

 according to Luschka, vestiges of ifr.s original condition in the form of a 

 long interrupted cavity, with irregularities and dilatations, lined with epi- 

 thelium similar to that of the bladder, and sometimes communicating by a 

 fine opening with the vesical cavity (Virchow's Archiv., 1862, and Anat. d. 

 Mensch., vol. ii., p. 229.) 



The sides of the bladder, when it is distended, are rounded and prominent, 

 and are each of them crossed obliquely by the cord of the obliterated hypo- 

 gastric artery, which is connected posteriorly with the superior vesical 

 artery, and runs forwards and upwards to the umbilicus, approaching 

 the uraehus above the summit of the bladder. Behind and above this cord 

 the side of the bladder is covered with the peritoneum, but below and in 

 front of it the peritoneum does not reach the bladder, which is here con- 

 nected to the sides of the pelvic cavity by loose areolar tissue containing 

 fat, and, near its anterior and lower part, by the broad expansion from the 

 recto-vesical fascia, forming the lateral true ligament. The vas deferens 

 crosses obliquely the lower part of this lateral surface, from before backwards 

 and downwards, and turning over the obliterated hypogastric artery, de- 

 scends upon the inner side of the ureter, along the posterior surface, to the 

 base of the bladder. 



Fig. 665. 



Fig. 665. BASE OF THE MALE 

 BLADDER WITH THE VESICULJE 

 SEMTNALES, VASA DEFERENTIA 

 AND PROSTATE EXPOSED (from 

 Haller). | 



a, line of reflection of the peri- 

 toneum in the recto-vesical pouch ; 

 &, the part above this from- which 

 the peritoneum has been removed, 

 exposing the longitudinal mus- 

 cular fibres ; i, left vas deferens 

 ending in e, the left ejaculatory 

 duct ; s, left vesicula seminalis 

 joining the same duct ; the right 

 vas deferens, and the right vesi- 

 cula seminalis, marked s, s, un- 

 ravelled, are also shown ; p, 

 under side of the prostate gland ; 

 m, small part of the membra- 

 nous portion of the urethra ; u, u, 

 the ureters, of which the right is 

 turned to the side. 



The base or fundus (in- 

 ferior fundus) is the widest 

 part of the bladder. It 



is directed backwards as well as downwards, and differs according to the 

 sex in its relations to other parts. In the male it rests upon the second 

 portion of the rectum, and is covered posteriorly for a short space by the 

 peritoneum, which, however, is immediately reflected from thence upon 

 the rectum, so as to form the recto-vesical pouch. In front of the line 

 of reflection of the serous membrane, the base of the bladder is destitute 

 of peritoneum, and adherent to the rectum by dense fibro-areolar tissue 



