THE PROSTATE IN YOUNG SUBJECTS.

41

"The prostate at 14 years. Width at base, 11 lines; at middle, 9; at apex, 4; length along the middle, 8 lines, and 10 at margin; thickness, 3 at base, 5 at middle, and 3 at apex. Weight, 58 grains.

Breadth at base, 14 lines; at middle, 16; at apex, lines, and at edge, 16; thickness at base, 8 lines; Weight, 4 drachms and 1 scruple.'

"The prostate at 20 years. 5; length along middle, 15 middle, 10; and apex, 51.

Mr. H. Bell, in an inaugural thesis, which he published in Paris, made observations, which have been copied by Malgaigne in his "Traité d'Anatomie Chirurgicale,"+ resulting from a dissection of upwards of forty subjects ranging between two and fifteen years of age. They are as follows:

I dissected one specimen at twelve years, which forms a preparation at the College of Surgeons, and the weight coincides very closely with that of one at the same age in Dr. Gross's series.

At twelve years; weighs 40 grains.

We must not overlook the researches of Deschamps made on a great number of bodies. In his "Traité Historique et Dogmatique de la Taille" he reports as follows:

1. "In subjects from three to eight years of age, the anterior thickness of the prostate" (anterior to the urethra) "is a line and three-quarters; its posterior part two lines and a half; and its lateral parts three and a half lines." .. 2. "In subjects from eight to sixteen years, the thickness of the anterior part is about two lines; of the posterior part, three lines of the lateral parts, four or five lines."

* Gross on the Urinary Organs, 2nd edition, p. 70.

+ Malgaigne's Traité d'Anat. Chir., &c. Paris, 1859. Tome ii. pp. 483-4. Paris, 1796. Vol. i. pp. 39-40.

The following general considerations are those of importance in reference to this subject.

The position of the prostate in children differs from that in the adult subject. It is more vertically placed in the pelvis than in that of the latter. The bladder has a corresponding position, its lower fundus is less depressed, less sessile on the rectum (so to speak) than it becomes later in life. The peritoneum comes very near to its base; but as the fundus is developed in later life, the peritoneum becomes further removed, and a well-marked space, or portion of the bladder (carefully noted both by the anatomist and the surgeon), remains uncovered by it beyond the prostate.

The form of the gland is more rounded in childhood, and has less of the distinctive characters and outline which mark the adult organ and its lobes.

Its consistence is soft, the capsule is easily torn, the glandular structures are simple, and slightly developed, being, apparently, little more than simple follicles, tubular and crypt-like, and ducts.

CHAPTER II.

FACTS RELATIVE TO WEIGHT, SIZE, AND MORBID CONDITION, OBTAINED BY DISSECTING THE PROSTATE.

Dissections by the Author.-By Dr. Messer.-In all, 194 Examples of the Prostate, presented in the Form of a Table.

Ar the conclusion of the foregoing portion of this work, and therefore occupying a position intermediate between that which relates to the normal anatomy of the prostate, and that which relates to its diseases, appears to be the most appropriate spot for placing the data from which many of the conclusions given respecting both subjects have been drawn. These consist in researches by dissection which are tabulated below. I have made numerous other dissections for the same purpose; but these having necessarily resulted in destruction of the organ are not recorded here; every one of those reported here as my own having been preserved and exhibited as wet preparations.

A TABULAR VIEW OF THE FACTS OBSERVED IN 194 DISSECTIONS OF THE PROSTATE. 1st Series.-Thirty prostates removed and carefully dissected by the author, from the bodies of individuals at and above the age of 60 years, as they consecutively appeared in the dead-house of a large metropolitan institution, and exhibited at the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1856, together with twenty others, for the purpose of showing that hypertrophy was the exceptional and not the prevailing condition of the prostate in advanced age. Trans. vol. xl.

2nd Series. One hundred prostates, similarly treated by Dr. Messer, at the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich; the account of which appeared at the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1860. Trans. vol. xliii.

3rd Series.-Thirty-four prostates, presented to the Royal College of Surgeons, by the author, in illustration of the Essay on the Healthy and Morbid Anatomy of the Prostate, which obtained the Jacksonian prize for the year 1860. These were removed by Drs. Fisher and Davis, of the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich, and transmitted to the author, by whom they were dissected and examined.

In treating the above 164 examples of prostates, from subjects at and above the age of 60, no selection whatever has been made; the object having been to obtain them from average lives, occurring in that class of the community which is met with in such institutions.

4th Series.

Twenty prostates, from persons mostly of middle age, all being below 60. These were also dissected and exhibited by the author, at the Medical and Chirurgical Society, in 1856; and they furnish part of the data from which the size and weight of the healthy prostate were deduced.

5th Series. Ten prostates, removed by the author from healthy subjects of middle age-35 to 57 years inclusive-not furnished consecutively from any one source, and therefore not classed with the foregoing series. They were examined by division in the middle line, to elucidate an anatomical question discussed at page 25.