Prostatic diseases are attended by a tmin of symptoms which depend upon the sympathies of neighbouring organs. When the gland sup purates (not an uncommon consequence of acute inflammation), the matter usually dis charges itself by the urethra, the tough capsule determining its route; but at times the abscess bursts into the rectum, or it may even point in the perineum after passing behind the base of the triangular ligament.
PERITONEUM.—The serous membrane of the abdomen, investing the inner surface of the abdominal walls and the outer surface of the abdominal viscera, and forming, by duplica tion, sheets with both surfaces free, called omenta, tnesenteries, suspensary ligaments, &c.
The peritoneum of the male subject, in accordance with the rule of serous membranes, is a shut sac : in the peritoneum of the female the single exception to this rule is met with: here the Fallopian tubes open into the perito neal cavity, and their mucous surface is conti nuous, through their fimbriated extremities, with the serous surface of the peritoneum. Another circumstance that renders the female peritoneum peculiar amongst serous mem branes is, that it is necessarily ruptured in the occurrence of a normal process, namely, in the escape of an ovum.
The manner in which a single serous shut sac, by a kind of intus-susception, invests the external surface of viscera and the internal surface of the cavity in which they are con tained, is admimbly illustrated by the well known comparison of a double night-cap. Where the cavity contains only a single viscus of a simple rounded form, as, for instance, the pericardium containing the heart, the com parison is very apt. But vvhen, as in the case
of the abdomen, numerous viscem of irregular shape are contained in the cavity, the matter is much more complicated, and the resemblance, therefore, far less striking. Yet is the relation of the parietal part of the peritoneum to the visceral part, and of both to the abdominal vis cera, essentially similar to that indicated in this well-known simile. The complexity of the peritoneal folds seems mainly to depend upon a strict adherence to such a simple relation, in the case of each of a great number of viscera, with their vessels, &c. contained in a single cavity. Each viscns, whatever its shape, whe ther closely or loosely connected, must have its arteries, its veins, its nerves, and its lymphatics passing to and from it, and the whole must be invested by a single shut sac without loss of continuity. The complexity thus arising de mands for this membrane a lengthened descrip tion.
We propose, first, to trace its continuity throughout its entire extent ; next, to describe the sheets with two free surfaces, which it forms by duplication; thirdly, to examine the manner in which it invests each of the viscera, and the abdominal parietes, that is to say, the extent to which it does so in the case of each, the point at which it arrives at and quits each, and so on; and, lastly, to describe its con nexions, or the adhesion of its external surface, varying in intimacy, with the parts which it invests. The most important points connected with the anatomy of the peritoneum will be incidentally involved in the consideration of the first of these propositions.