the cavity of the bladder. These tumours, as they obstruct the passage of the urine, have attracted the attention of all anatomical surgeons, from the time of Morgagni to the present day. Their appearance has been accurately described, and specimens of them in different degrees of enlargement are preserved in every collection of morbid parts. The attention of surgeons has been naturally called to what is of the greatest consideration, the appearances they put on, and the symptoms they produce: but the particular circumstances in the natural conformation of the gland, which dispose it to form these tumours, have never been examined. Morgagni says, "These caruncles were found to grow out in the very middle of the upper and internal posterior circumference of the gland; but whether these things happened by chance or otherwise future observations will shew."[1]
From these expressions, it is evident that Morgagni had no idea that there was any conformation of the prostate gland, that could account for this tumour, and believed that it arose from the surface of the body of the gland.
Mr. Hunter, in treating of the enlargement of the prostate gland, says, "From the situation of the gland, which is principally on the two sides of the canal, and but little if at all on the fore part, as also very little on the posterior side, when it swells it can only be laterally; whereby it presses
- ↑ Si ea, quæ ex Sepulchreto exempla indicavimus, et id, quod supra ex Valsalva attulimus, et nostra omnia attentè inspicias, cuncta in senibus fuisse animadvertes: ita nostra omnia, in quibus carunculæ initium fuit, hanc in medio ipso posteriori interni summique glandulæ ambitûs excrescentem obtulisse: casune hæc euncta, an secùs, futuræ ostendent observationes. Morgagni de Sed. et Caus. Morb. lib. iii. epist. 41, A. 19.
