The male urethra : its diseases and reflexes / by Fessenden N. Otis.

Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The male urethra : its diseases and reflexes / by Fessenden N. Otis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    This depression, about a quarter of an inch in width, is continuous with a short canal or cul-de-sac, studded with racemose glands and lined with squamous epi- thelium, and is the alleged analogue of the uterus in the female. It is chiefly important in a practical point of view as capable of engaging the point of an instrument in its passage into the bladder, of furnishing a possible lodgment for small calculi, and as being the point of origin for fibrous growths which are claimed to result from its homology with the uterus. The complete investment this portion of the urethra, and per- meation of the prostate with non-striated muscular tissue, plays an important part in the retention of the urine in the bladder, and in the forcible discharge of semen through the urethra. The urethra is strongly stayed in its position by the deep perineal fascia which is so arranged that the urethra passes through one layer, the posterior, at a point which coincides with the apex of the prostate while the anterior layer, separated about three-fourths of an inch from it is also traversed by it in a similar manner. These two layers of the deep fascia,constituting the triangular ligament,thus enclose that important part of the urethra known as the membranous portion, the pars muscularis, so called from the strong muscular surroundings of the canal at this point. Chief among these are the compressores urethrae, two small striated muscles which are attached to the ischio-pubiq bones, one above and one below, which on contraction com-