Licence: In copyright
Credit: Sexual debility in man / by F. R, Sturgis. 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.
23/444 (page 17)
![URETHRA. The urethra extends from the bladder to the glans penis; the opening at the bladder is called the ostium vesicae, the opening at the external end the ostium cutaneum (meatus urinarius). It is divided into three portions, viz., the prostatic, the membranous (isthmus), and the spongv or penile portions. This latter is the long- est (six or more inches [i 5 cm.] in length), and is con- tained in the corpus spongiosum penis, extending from the bulbus urethrae to end at the meatus. It varies in length, owing to its great capacity for extension; hence the marked extremes given from five and one-half to five and three-fourth inches (14 cm.) (Malgaigne) to twelve inches (30 cm.) (Sabatier). Hyrtl states that the average length is seven to eight inches (18 to 20 cm.), which is probably very nearly, if not absolutely, correct. Its calibre varies much in different portions of the canal, the average being three-eighths inch (9 mm.) in diameter (McClellan). It must be borne in mind that the male urethra is not an open pipe or tube, and unless distended has no lumen. A transverse section made at the prostatic portion of the urethra shows the canal as a crescent with the convexity upward; at the membranous portion the urethra looks like a star, and at different parts of the spongy penis the urethra varies in shape, being at the bulb transverse in shape, at the median portion crescentic with the convexity looking upward, and at the meatus vertical (McClellan). The meatus is the narrowest portion of the entire urethra, and the opening is vertical to become di- lated a short distance from the opening. This dilatation is quite marked, and is known as the fossa navicularis. The portion which extends from the meatus to the pos- 2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21975188_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
