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III. On the Muscular Arrangements of the Bladder and Prostate , and the manner in 
which the Ureters and Urethra are closed. By James Bell Pettigrew, M.D. 
Edin., First Assistant in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 
Communicated by Dr. Sharpey, Sec. B.S. 
Received June 21, — Read June 21, 1866. 
The arrangement of the muscular fibres of the bladder is exceedingly intricate, and 
notwithstanding the large share of attention devoted to it, remains to a considerable 
extent unexplained. A cursory examination of the literature of the subject will serve 
to show that many of the statements advanced in elucidation of this difficult point 
of minute anatomy are more or less conflicting. Lieutaud* * * * and Sabatier j’ described 
the fibres as pursuing no definite course, but as crossing in all directions to form a 
complete network of unequal meshes ; while Galen J enumerated three distinct orders 
of fibres, viz. a longitudinal, an oblique, and a circular, “Vesicarum tunicse rectos 
rotundos et obliquos habent villos.” 
Duverney§, Lauth||, Huschke% and Cruveilhier** * * §§ were of opinion that the 
fibres of the bladder might be separated into an external layer consisting of straight or 
longitudinal fibres, “ musculor detrusor urinse ” (Lauth), and an internal layer com- 
posed of oblique circular fibres, the oblique fibres, according to them, being developed 
most fully towards the cervix, where they form the “ sphincter vesicse.” 
Guthrie ff gives a very similar account. He recognizes an external longitudinal 
layer and an internal one, the fibres of which run in a spiral, oval, and transverse 
direction. 
Barrow and Ellis §§ indicate three layers, an external longitudinal, a middle 
circular, and an internal reticular or submucous. 
Winslow || || carried the separation further, and maintained that the fleshy fibres of 
* Hist, de l’Acad. des Sciences, 1753, p. 99. + Traite Compl. d’Anat. Paris, 1777. 
+ De usu partium, lib. v. cap. xi. § (Euvres Anat. 1761. 
|| Nouveau Manuel de l’Anatomiste. Paris, 1835. 
Encyclop. Anat. trad. Jourdan. Paris, 1845. ** Anat. Descript. 3 e edit. 1852. 
ft On tbe Anatomy and Diseases of the Urinary Organs and Sexual Organs. By G. J. Guthrie, F.R.S. 
Lond. 1843. 
Anatomy of the Muscular Fibres of the Human Bladder. Breslau, 1858. 
§§ “ An Account of the Urinary and certain of the Generative Organs of the Human Body. By Georgs 
Viner Ellis, Prof. Anat. Univ. Coll. Lond.,” Med. Chir. Trans, vol. xxxix. 
|| || The Anatomy of the Human Body. Lond. 1766, sect. viii. § 452. 
MDCCCLXVII. D 
