| OCR Text |
Show 384 MH. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE [Apr. 19, gated, highly granular cells ; the re-t of the epithelium of the gland is composed of glandular cells, rounded and swollen at the base and terminating in a fine slender duct ; there are numerous rows of these cells. The lumen of the gland for the posterior half is triangular (Plate XXXIII. fig. 8 ) ; further forward (fig. 9) it becomes cross-shaped. In the posterior half of the prostate, however, the gland is divided into two tubes, which are quite independent of each other : rather behind the point at which the vasa deferentia perforate the coats of the prostate the inner circular muscular layer of the gland is deflected inwards (see fig. 10), and cuts up the interior into two parallel chambers ; the one contains the continuation of the lumen of the prostate which has just been described, while the other contains at first merely a mass of glandular cells cut off from the outer layers of glandular epithelium by the invasion of the circular muscular layer. Presently a lumen is developed in this part of the gland, which has a crescentic outline ; there is absolutely no continuity at this end between the two tubes; the lining epithelium of the second tube ultimately comes to resemble in every particular that of the principal tube ; there is no external indication of the division of the prolate into two parallel tubes ; the section of the whole organ is an unbroken ellipse. Where the vasa deferentia perforate the walls of the prostate the second tube is already established ; the vasa deferentia make their way separately through the muscular coats of the gland, losing their own special muscles : the vasa deferentia become very fine tubes, which are not easy to recognize ; they appear to become united in the circular muscular coat of the prostate into a single tube which passes along the muscles dividing up the interior of the prostate; the vas deferens then becomes continuous with the prostate gland, but with the original portion of the gland, and not with the second tube. Theoretically one might suppose that each vas deferens opened into a separate part of the prostate, and that the division of the latter corresponded to the separation of the vasa deferentia ; I cannot, however, find any evidence that this is the case. Each of the two portions of the prostate becomes continuous with a narrow tube that leads to the penis (see fig. 15) ; in correspondence with the difference in size between the two portions of the prostate, the outermost of the two tubes leading to the penis is smaller than the inner. A little before they enter the penis the two tubes join into a single tube. The penis (p, Plate XXXIII. fig. 15) is a muscular process of the walls of the bursa copulatrix ; it contains a median canal, which is continuous with the lumen of the duct of the prostate gland. The internal canal of the penis, however, does not alone communicate with the vas deferens ; towards the base of the organ, *". e. towards its base of attachment to the walls of the bursa, it bears a longitudinal groove, which shortly becomes closed in and forms a canal, ultimately opening into the canal of the penis ; there is therefore an open communication between the vas deferens and the interior of the bursa copulatrix ; in fact, in the specimen which I studied by means of transverse sections, a mass of spermatozoa partly filled up the canal |
