Porneiopathology / A Popular Treatise on Venereal and Other Diseases of the Male and Female Genital System; With Remarks on Impotence, Onanism, Sterility, Piles, and Gravel, and Prescriptions for Their Treatment

by Robert James Culverwell

The bladder is the reservoir of the urine, which is formed in the kidneys, comes into the ureters, passages leading from the kidneys to the bladder, and thence flows, drop by drop, into the bladder. The bladder is shaped somewhat like a pear, but this shape is varied by its contents, and the relative condition of its adjacent parts. Thus, when the bladder is full, its upper part may be felt rising above the pubis, that portion of the lower part of the belly that is covered with hair. In very fat persons the bladder is flattened by the weight of the intestines, and obliged to find room where it can, as in pregnant women. Anatomists, when describing the bladder, speak of its body, base, or upper part, sides and neck, where the urethra or water passage begins, and which is surrounded by the prostate gland. These parts are seen in the first engraving on the opposite page.

The bladder is composed of several coats. There is a peculiar membrane investing the important structures in the abdomen called the peritonœum. The base and back part of the bladder is covered by a portion of this peritonœum, which in a measure supports the bladder in its position, and also exercises certain properties which may hereafter be alluded to.

a. The inner surface of the Bladder, showing the direction of the Muscular Fibres. b. The opening of the right Ureter into the Bladder, whence the urine issues. c, c. The Prostate Gland cut through, and its sides exhibited. d. The Urethra. e. Verumontanum. f, f. Orifices of the Seminal Ducts, marked by twigs inserted therein; the other points mark the orifices from the Prostate and other Glands. View larger image

a. The inner surface of the Bladder, showing the direction of the Muscular Fibres.

b. The opening of the right Ureter into the Bladder, whence the urine issues.

c, c. The Prostate Gland cut through, and its sides exhibited.

d. The Urethra.

e. Verumontanum.

f, f. Orifices of the Seminal Ducts, marked by twigs inserted therein; the other points mark the orifices from the Prostate and other Glands.