COWPER'S GLANDS — (giandidc8 Coseperi, gladnulce antiprostaticce vel prostaticce inferiores) are two glands situated beneath the anterior portion of the membranous part of the urethra, just behind the bulb, between the layers of the triangular ligament. A few fibres of the compressor urethr? pass beneath them. Some times a single gland only is found, and occa sionally there are three ; in which case, ac cording to Cowper, the additional gland is placed just beneath the pubis. These bodies are frequently difficult to find, and in old persons they either disappear altogether, or become so soft that it is impossible to recog nise them. In their natural condition they are rounded, or nearly so, and equal in size to an ordinary pea. Solid and resisting to the feel, they are of a palish red colour, and dis tinctly conglomerated, or composed of small lobules. The lobules of the glands are con nected together by cellular membrane, and by their efferent ducts. The glands are sur rounded by a strong capsule of fibrous mem brane. On section they present an appear ance like the pancreas, and are composed in ternally of elongated cellular follicles, which, according to Krause, vary from the 50th to the 25th of a line in length, and are about the 36th of a line in breadth. Some of these follicles equal in size a 16th or 25th of a line. They unite into slender ducts of about the 18th or 16th of a line in diameter ; these usually coalesce into a single excretory duct. The excretory duct of each gland is occa sionally double : the ducts run parallel for the distance of half an inch beneath the mucous membrane of the bulb, and approaching each other, they pierce the urethra by two exceed ingly minute orifices, which are scarcely distin guishable : the best mode of demonstrating the openings of the ducts is gently to press the mucous membrane forwards with the handle of a scalpel, when a small quantity of secretion contained in them will escape, and indicate their termination on the mucous membrane.
Each gland receives a branch from the artery of the bulb, and its veins terminate in the pudic vein.
It is impossible to collect any quantity of the secretion of Cowper's glands sufficient for chemical analysis. According to Krause, the fluid is somewhat similar to that secreted by the prostate ; it is of a viscid character, transparent, containing flocculi and small granulations, probably the detritus of epithe lial cells, varying in size from the 900th to the 370th of a line, the greater number being about the 455th of a line.
Comparative anatomy.— As there is so little of a satisfactory nature known about the use of Cowper's glands in man, it may not be un interesting to examine their condition in the animal kingdom generally. To elucidate this part of the subject, I select the following observations from the Lecons d'Anatomie Comparee of Cuvier.
According to Curler, Cowper's glands exist in all the Quadrumana and Cheiroptera, and amongst the Fero they are found in the ichneu mon, in the civet, hyena, cats ; in the Rodentia, except the hare ; also in the Pachydermata, most of the Ruminants, and all the 1llarsupiata, They are absent in the Insectivore, the bears, the racoon, otter, and marten, and in the dog. Amongst the Ruminants, they are wanting in the deer; they are absent in the Solipeds, Phoci, the amphibious Quadriremes, and the Cetacea. It will be found that they often co exist with the prostate and vesiculm semi nales, or with these and the vesiculm acces sorim, or with the prostate alone.
In the flesh-eating opossum, they are the only accessory glands, and they appear essen tial to this division of the Marsupiata.
In structure they vary considerably, but may all be arranged under one or two heads. Thus like the prostate, in some animals, there is a large reservoir in the centre of each gland, from which the excretory duct arises ; whilst in others the gland is composed of a number of minute follicles, all terminating in one common excretory duct.