On the treatment of strictures of the urethra by mechanical dilatation, and other diseases attendant on them: with some anatomical observations on the natural form and dimensions of the urethra, with a view to a more precise adaptation and use of the instruments employed in their relief / by James Briggs.

Date:: 1845

Credit: On the treatment of strictures of the urethra by mechanical dilatation, and other diseases attendant on them: with some anatomical observations on the natural form and dimensions of the urethra, with a view to a more precise adaptation and use of the instruments employed in their relief / by James Briggs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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$]3 after expanding a little, the urethra gradually increases in width as far as the attachment of the ligamentum suspensorium {i. e. at the distance of about 3 or 3^ inches from the meatus), it then decreases as it ap- proaches the symphysis pubis ; the portion extending from thence to the prostate gland, especially the mem- branous portion, being found to be in appearance the narrowest part of the canal. The dimensions of some of these parts are materially altered when the urethra is distended by injecting it with wax, or other similar substances M. Le Cat f, in the middle of the last century, made casts of the urethra by filling it with wax, and after- wards glue, for the purpose of determining the capa- city and form of the canal. He found by this means the two broadest parts of it to be the prostatic, and that within the bulb, portions to which he respectively applied the term of gulphs ; and he notices its mar- row and oblique opening at the point of its entrance into the bladder. Sir E. Home though probably unaware of what had been already done by M. Le Cat, or at least with- out referring to him, proceeded with the same views in a similar manner, and has given plates of the * According to Bichat, “ The membranous portion is the thinnest and narrowest part of the canal; at the bulb it takes a much greater size, which is continued to the base of the glans.”—Anat. Descript, tom. V. p. 118, 119. t Philos. Trans, vol. xli. t Observations on Strictures of the Urethra, vol. i. p. 28.$

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