Great physiological interest attaches to the utriculus, from its having been supposed by anatomists to be the true representative of the uterus. Its homology with this body is evinced by. its shape, and position between the mo ejaculatory ducts, although the latter do not open into it, as the fallopian tubes do into the uterus ; thus it reseinbles the latter body by its division into a neck and flinch's, by its being surrounded by the prostatic ducts, as the uterus is at its orifice by the follicles there situated, and by the veru montanum forming 'to its orifice a prolonged inferior labium ; and if, as some anatomists assert, the ejaculatory ducts occasionally open directly into the pouch, or previously unite together, the parallel is infinitely more perfect.
Morgagni has even a description and figure of the ntriculus as he found it in five subjects which he examined. Ackerman also described it, and termed it uterus cystoides, and mentions instances described by Petit, Sue, and Maret, where it was an inch in extent. In one case mentioned by himself, it was actually larger than the prostate gland. E. H. Weber pointed out its physiological interest as a rudimentary uterus, and Huschke, has found it filled with a yellowish liquid, in vvhich he distinctly. re cognised portions of cylindrical epithelium.* The best description I can find of this struc ture, is that by Huschke who examined it in the hare. Ile found it in this animal in the form of a bottle, fifteen lines in length and half an inch in breadth, extending behind the bladder. It commenced by a simple transverse fissure, from a line to a line and a half in breadth, over the veru niontanum. It gradually dilated for about half an inch, and becoming contracted, it was again dilated, and terminated in a point rather to the left skle. The vasa deferentia were situated by the side of the utriculus, and gradually ap proximating, they opened within a line of each other in the utriculus, at about a line and a half or two lines from its orifice, by two large papillary openings ; so that when air was injected by one vas deferens, it not only escaped from the opening of the utrieu lus, but filled its cavity, and passed into the other. Huschke supposes that the utriculus in this animal always contains semen, as the existence of spermatozoa, and the appearance of the fluid indicate. In an anatomical point of view, he does not consider it at all analogous to the vesiculm seminales of man ; but in the hare as an uterus for the reception of semen, as the female uterus receives the ovule. A more minute examination of this bag strengthens this conviction. Its orifice is transverse, and represents an os tincm in the arrangement of its labia ; 2dly, there is an evident distinction in the mucous lining of its neck and fundus, it being arranged in five or six longitudinal folds, so as to form a true arbor vitm, and seems covered with muscular fibres. The following are the deductions of
Huschke :-1st, That the utriculus is a male uterus; 2dly, that it is originally a recep tacle of seminal fluid ; 3dly, that its develop ment is in the inverse ratio of the develop ment of the vesiculm seminales and prostate gland in man ; 4thly, that it is a vestige of a structure existing in the fcetus, and in man is really of no use whatever.
Cuvier has described a long membranous canal with a spherical extremity, situated be tween the two vasa deferentia in the solipeds. This long bag opens on to the urethra, in front of the common orifices of the vasa defe rentia and vesiculm seminales, rather to the left side,. A fluid of the consistency of honey can be squeezed out of it. This is evidently the utriculus.
In an interesting case of hypospadias, a case peculiarly favourable for the investiga tion, Professor Theile, of Berne, most care fully examined the utriculus, and described its anatomical relations. I take the following account of this examination from the first number of the " British and Foreign Medico Chirurgical Review :" —" The scrotum con tained two testicles ; the vasa deferentia, vesieulm seminales, and prostate gland were present. The latter was fourteen lines long, eight and a- half thick, and sixteen broad. Theile found a canal originating in the usual opening on the utriculus, run backwards for an inch and a half, ending in a cul-de.sac four lines in diameter, and placed between the two vasa deferentia; this canal (vesica prostatiea), with the exception of its anterior part, did not lie within the prostate, but below or behind this gland. Besides this 'structure, a small, oval, glandular body, five lines long, four broad, and two thick, was found behind, lying between the vesica prostatica and the prostate itself ; it did not appear that this substance was continuous with the substance of the prostate, although this continuity might have existed and escaped detection. Examined by the microscope, this body presented an aggrega tion of cells and vesicles, which were lunch more easily seen in it than in the proper pros tate. Theile regards this body, lying closely upon the vesica prostatica, as a middle lobe of the prostate. In order to ascertain the rela tion of the ductus ejaculatorius with the vesicle, a wax injection was thrown into the lower part of the vas deferens. On a careful examination, it was found that the ejaculatory duct did not open into the utriculus, but was only closely applied to its lateral wall, and then pene,trated into the urethra in the usual place." In this case the membranous portion of the urethra opened into a normal bulbous portion.