82 ESSAY ON THE DESCRIPTIVE ANATOMY OF THE 
The nerves of the bladder are derived from the sympathetic, 
and partly from the two last sacral pairs which supply the neck. 
The lymphatics go to glands surrounding the origin of the 
iliac arteries, termed pelvic lymphatic glands, from which ves¬ 
sels arise communicating anteriorly with the receptaculum chyli. 
Urethra. 
This canal in the male subject is not only purposed for the 
passage of urine, but also transmits the products of the genera¬ 
tive organs. It extends from the posterior part of the bladder 
to the glans penis; but we shall only occupy ourselves with a 
description of the intra-abdominal or pelvic portion, which ter¬ 
minates at the bulb of the penis or ischial arch. 
It is continuous anteriorly with the bladder, attached to the 
rectum and sides of the pelvis by fascia and loose cellular 
tissue and muscles. 
The urethra is cylindrical, of considerable length, and its 
coats of no mean thickness. The pelvic portion of the 
urethra is generally about three or four inches long, taking a 
direction backwards and somewhat upwards. 
It is related superiorly to the vesiculse seminales, middle lobe 
of the prostate, and posteriorly it comes in contact with the 
rectum, but separated from it laterally by Cowper’s glands. 
The first or prostatic portion of the urethra is purely mem¬ 
branous, strengthened by cellular tissue and a continuation of 
the fibres of the bladder, the circular ones in particular, which 
are abundant anteriorly. The posterior two-thirds of the pelvic 
portion of the urethra are covered by a thick red muscular layer 
which completely encircles it, with the exception of that part 
coming in contact with Cowper’s glands. This muscle is con¬ 
tinuous behind with the muscular fibres of the penis, which 
constitute the accelerator urinse. These fibres are externally 
mixed with longitudinal ones, a portion of which are merely the 
inner or inferior bundles of the retractor ani, whilst others are 
derived from the triangularis penis: both these muscles tend to 
fix the urethra. Postero-superiorly the fibres encircling the 
urethra are blended with the external anal sphincter. The 
retractor penis, which gets attached to the sacral bone, is a 
white muscle also, affording fixity to the pelvic portion of the 
urethra. 
Beneath the muscular tunic of the urethra we find a loose 
cellular tissue, and posteriorly also some erectile structure con¬ 
tinuous on to the penis. 
On slitting open the pelvic portion of the urethra, to examine 
its mucous membrane, we find that it is smooth, glistening, and 
