The compleat midwife's practice enlarged in the most weighty and high concernments of the birth of man containing a perfect directory or rules for midwives and nurses : as also a guide for women in their conception, bearing and nursing of children from the experience of our English authors, viz., Sir Theodore Mayern, Dr. Chamberlain, Mr. Nich. Culpeper ... : with instructions of the Queen of France's midwife to her daughter ... / by John Pechey ... ; the whole illustrated with copper plates.

CHAP. XII. Of the kernelly Prostatae, or Forestanders.

THE glandulous Prostatae, or Forestanders, are two little Testicles, as it were seated at the foot of the Yard, a little above the Sphincter of the Uri∣nary Vessels; they are wrapt about with a membrane, which doth also cloath the seminary Vessels and ve∣sicles: before and behind they seem more flat, on the sides they are more round; they have a substance like other kernels, loose and spongy, only they differ from them by reason of their whiteness and hardness, they are endued with an exquisite feeling, to stir up greater desire of Copulation. These Glandulae or kernels have certain pores that open themselves into

the Urethra, through which the Seed (these Forestan∣ders being squeezed by the lower Muscles of the Yard) distils into the Yard.

The use of these Kernels are partly to beget an oyly, fat, and slippery substance, with which the u∣rinary passage is sometimes anointed, to defend it from the acrimony both of the Seed and Urin, and to keep it always moist.

The other use is taken from the name of Prostatae; which word, in the singular number, signifies a Tu∣tor or Defender; for they are there placed to preserve and strengthen the ends of the Deferent Vessels, lest by overmuch distention of the Yard, the Semi∣nary Vessels should be either burst, or moved out of their places.

They have a third use: For, being placed between the Bladder and the right gut, they serve instead of Cushions for the Vessels to rest upon, and to guard them from all compression: Hence it happens some∣times that those who are very much bound in their bodies, while they strain themselves over-vehement∣ly, do now and then void a kind of Seed, which hap∣pens by a violent compression of those parts.

The Prostats, in English, standers by, or waiters, are placed near to the Seed-Bladders. De Graef calls them the glandulous body, supposing them to be one body, and only divided by the common ducts of the seed-bladders, and the vasa deferentia coming through the midst of it. They are of a white, spungy, glandulous substance, about as big as a small Wall-nut, encom∣passed with a strong and fibrous Membrane from the Bladder, to the beginning of whose neck they are join∣ed at the root of the Yard; in shape they come near∣est to an Oval, save that on their upper and lower part, they are a little depressed, and in that end,

whereby the vasa deferentia enter, they are somewhat hollow like a Tunnel.

The sphincter Muscle of the Bladder encompasses them so, that for so far as they cover the neck of the Bladder, the sphincter touches it not, they coming between. They have all sorts of vessels which run chiefly on their out-side, in the inner part, they have ten or more small Ducts, which unload them∣selves into the Urethra, by the sides of the great Ca∣runcle, thro' which the Seed passes from the Seed Bladders into the Urethra; but themselves have each one, a small one to stop its Orifice, least the liquor that is contained in the Prostats, should continually flow out, or the Urine flow in: and these small Ducts, I suppose, are continued from those small Bladders which are seen in the Prostats of those that dye sud∣denly, after having had to do with a Female; for in such, the spungy part of the Prostats is very full of a thin liquor, and in their inner part may be found the same small bladders, which if you press upon, they will discharge themselves into the above said Ducts. There is a great variety of Opinions, what the li∣quor in them should be, or what is their use: Some think that the Seed that flows from the Testicles, is further elaborated here; but that cannot be, because the vasa deferentia deposit nothing in them, but all into the small Seed Vessels. Others think, that there is separated from the Blood in them, an acrimo∣nious and serous humour which serves for Titulation, or causing the greater pleasure in Venery. As to this, de Graef appeals to the taste of it, which has no∣thing of Acrimony in it. Dr. Wharton thinks they make a particular kind of Seed, as the Stones do ano∣ther, and the Seed Bladders a third; that these last make a different Seed from that made in the Stones, is

grounded on a mistake in Anatomy, viz. That the vasa deferentia have no communication with the Seed-Bladders, whereas they apparently open into them, and desposite in them all the Seed they con∣tain; that the Prostats make a peculiar sort, he endea∣vours to prove, because gelded Animals emit some Seed; but tho' they do emit something, it is not necessary it should be any true Seed; or if it be, it may well be supposed to proceed from the small Seed-Bladders that were full when the Animal was gelt; for this reason it has been observed, that presently af∣ter gelding, they have sometimes got the Female with Young, but not afterwards when that stock was spent. Others think they make an oyly and slippery hu∣mour, which is pressed out opon occasion to besmear the Urethra, to defend it from the acrimony of the Seed and Urine, and lest it should dry up. De Graef believes, that the Humour that is separated in the Prostats, serves for a vehicle of the Seed, which flow∣ing but in small quantity, thro' small Poors into the Urethra, it was necessary, that this Humour should be mixed with it, that it might the better reach the Womb; whatever this Humour be, it is squeezed out partly by the swelling and erection of the Yard, and partly, by compression of the sphincter of the Blad∣der, that girds the Prostats about: These Prostats are often the seat of a Gonorrhaea, and the Humour they contain, is that which flows out in the running of the Reins; for if it were true Seed, they could never en∣dure a Gonorrhaea so long, some thirty Years, with∣out being much wasted, the flux being so much as some∣times it is.