952 MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 



THE URETHRA. 



The urethra is a membranous tube directed in the median line, first verti- 

 cally and then from behind forwards, beneath the arch of the pubes, in 

 which situation it opens in the female into the vulva, while in the male it is 

 enclosed in the spongy substance and prolonged beneath the corpora caver- 

 nosa penis. In the female, it serves simply as the excretory passage for the 

 urine ; in the male, it conducts also the seminal fluid. The detailed 

 anatomy of the male and female urethra will be given with that of the 

 organs of generation of the respective sexes. 



ORGANS OF GENERATION. 



THE MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 



THE male organs of generation include, together with the testes and their 

 proper excretory apparatus, a series of structures which for convenience 

 may be considered first, as they are closely connected with the urethra. 

 Thus, at its commencement the urethra passes through the prostate gland, 

 and there it receives the excretory ducts of the testes and vesiculse semi- 

 nales ; emerging from the prostate, it traverses the layers of the subpubic 

 fascia supported by muscles, and, becoming copiously surrounded with 

 the erectile tissue of the corpus spongiosum, is pierced by the ducts of 

 Cowper's glands, and afterwards, in conjunction with the corpora cavernosa, 

 enters into the formation of the penis. 



THE PROSTATE GLAND. 



The prostate gland is a firm glandular body, somewhat resembling a 

 chestnut in shape and size, which supports the neck of the bladder and 

 encloses the commencement of the urethra : it is placed in the pelvic cavity, 

 on the deep aspect of the subpubic fascia, and rests upon the rectum. It 

 has the form of a flattened cone with its base in contact with the bladder, 

 and cut obliquely, so that its posterior or rectal surface is much larger than 

 its anterior or pubic surface. It usually measures about an inch and a 

 half across at its widest part, an inch and a quarter from its base to its 

 apex, and nearly an inch in depth or thickness. Its ordinary weight is 

 about six drachms. 



The anterior or pubic surface of the prostate is flattened and marked 

 with a slight longitudinal furrow ; it is about half an inch or rather more 

 from the pubic symphysis, and there, as well as the sides of the gland, is con- 

 Fig. 668. . Fig. 668. TRANSVERSE SECTION OP THE PROS- 

 TATE GLAND THROUGH THE MIDDLE. 



u, the urethra, into which the eminence of the 

 caput gallinaginis rises from below ; s, the sinus 

 poculaxis, cut through ; d e, the ejaculatory ducts ; 

 m, superiorly, the deep sphincter muscular fibres ; 

 ra, lower down, intersecting muscular bands in the 

 lateral lobes of the prostate ; p, p, glandular sub- 

 stance. 



nected to the pubic arch by the reflexion 

 of the pelvic fascia, which forms the 



pubo-prostatic ligaments or anterior ligaments of the bladder. The pos- 

 terior or rectal surface is smooth, and is marked by a slight depression, 



