PROSTATE GLAND, a pale, firm, glandular body situated in the lower part of the pelvic cavity, surrounding the neck of the bladder and the commencement of the male urethra. In .shape and size it resembles a horse-chestnut, weighing about six drams, and is held in position by the anterior ligaments of the bladder, deep perinea] fascia, and anterior portion of the levator ani muscle. It consists of three lobes, one middle and two lateral, and is inclosed in a thin but firm fibrous capsule, distinct from that of the pos terior layer of deep perinea] fascia, and separated from it by a plexus of veins. Its interior is of a pale, reddish-gray color, easily torn, but very dense, consisting of glandu lar substance and muscular tissue. The glandular substance is composed of numerous follicles opening into elongated canals, which join to form from 12 to 20 small excretory ducts which open into the urethra. The epithelium (q.v.) lining the canals is columnar, while in the follicles it is squamous. The muscular tissue (of the involuntary kind) is in the form of circular bands round the urethra, and is continuous behind with the circular fibers of the sphincter of the bladder, and in front with the circular fibers of the urethra. The prostate gland secretes a milky fluid having an acid reaction, and, when examined with the microscope, showing squamous and columnar epithelium and granu lar nuclei. In old age it is liable to become enlarged, and it is also sometimes the seat of various diseases.' Inflammation of the organ is rarely ideopathic, but not infrequently occurs as the result of gonorrhea, or the use of instruments. Abscess may happen either as the result of acute inflammation, or'it may occur with comparatively little ante cedent inflammation, as sometimes happens in pyernia. Prostatitis is liable to produce retention of urine, either from inflammatory exudation, or from the pressure caused by the formation of pus. In such cases the urine must be drawn from the bladder by a
catheter, an operation which, ender the circumstances, requires considerable skill and knowledge in order to avoid injuring the gland. The enlargement spoken of above as occurring in elderly and aged persons, although liable to affect all classes, is more usual in those who have led irregular lives. The enlargement is due to hypertrophy of the normal structures, fibrous and glandular, of ,the organ, most commonly of the fibrous, but often Of all the tissues. In rare cases there is excessive development of the glandu lar element; and sometimes tumor's are developed. Sometimes the gland attains large dimensions. A preparation of one taken from a man eighty years old, in the Norwich hospital museum, England, weighs 20 ounces. The physical effects of enlarged prostate are often very distressing, but the moral effects are sometimes even worse, the constant irritation exciting libidinous ideas, leading to the perpetration of acts of indecency in have not firm moral control. It is not infrequently, however, the case that wrong ideas and wrong habits have preceded the prostatic disease and have been the cause of it. A state of atrophy sometimes occurs in the prostate gland as the result of exhausting disease; in some cases it may be congenital. The gland may also, very rarely, be the seat of cancer, as well as of tubercle, and of cystis, and prostatic calculi. Prostatic calculus generally occurs in old people, thifugh it is sometimes met with in young subjects. Erichseu extracted two prostatic concretions from a lad of nineteen. These calculi are usually of a gray color, of a somewhat triangular form, hard, smooth, and polished, about the size of a cherry-stone or smaller, and have facets. Sometimes they attain the size of a hen's egg, when they are usually much branched and irregular.