Anat. Also 6–7 vretere, vreter, 7 uriter. [a. medical L. ūrētēr, a. Gr. οὐρητήρ, f. οὐρεῖν to make water. Cf. F. uretère (1541), It. and Pg. uretere, Sp. urétere.] Either of the fibro-muscular tubes or vessels that convey the urine from the pelvis of the kidney to the bladder; a urinary duct.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, V. 78 b. From this veyne springeth a vessell called Vreter.
1591. Jas. I., Poet. Exerc., Furies 862. A Stone, which stops … The sliddrie vreter, carier of Salt vrine.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man (1631), 190. The paine of the Stone is … acute when it mooueth into or toward the Vreter.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Stone, To make use of his Probe, and to thrust it [sc. the stone] thro’ the Ureter into the Bladder.
1800. Med. Jrnl., IV. 392. On the left side of the bladder, near the termination of the ureter.
1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 348/1. The ureter [in birds] … has the same structure as in the mammalia.
1875. Huxley & Martin, Elem. Biol., 198. The duct [of the frog]—ureter (female) or genito-urinary canal (male)—running … to the cloaca.
1893. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 7 Jan., 11/2. A calculus impacted in the lower end of the ureter.
attrib. 1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 72. The juice of Mallows … enlargeth the Vretere conduits.
1898. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 5 Nov., 1412/2. The ureter catheters … must be used with aseptic precautions.
b. More usually in pl.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, V. 83 b. Two other passages … deducyng Urine from the reynes, and called Vreteres.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 372. Two other passages, called vreteres or vrine pipes.
1625. Hart, Anat. Ur., I. ii. 30. They shew forth the disposition … of the kidneyes, vreters, or vrine-pipes, and the bladder.
1653. H. More, Conject. Cabbal., 156. Fishes, and … birds… are both also destitute of Vreters.
1707. Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 346. This shews the Constitution of the Veins and Ureters, by which we may understand the phlegmatic Temper.
1755. Gentl. Mag., XXV. 416. The ureters … are situated near the seminal vessels on each side of the spine.
1808. Barclay, Muscular Motions, 556. The urine … is propelled by the successive muscular action of the ureters into the bladder.
1848. Carpenter, Anim. Phys., 282. In all Mammalia, and in others, we find the ureters … dilated at their lower extremity into a bladder.
1876. Clin. Soc. Trans., IX. 26. Both ureters were full of thick yellow pus.
