THE MALE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. 



219 



sheaths, are enveloped in the general areolar tissue supporting the 

 larger blood-vessels, nerves, and lymphatics, the whole being covered 

 in by the investing integument. The skin of the penis is attached 

 over its body by loose subcutaneous tissue, allowing of free move- 

 ment and great distention ; it is distinguished by its dark color, thin- 

 ness, freedom from fat, and, throughout the greater part of its ex- 

 tent, absence of hairs. At the margin of the prepuce the skin as- 

 sumes the character of a true mucous membrane, becoming delicate, 

 rosy, and moist ; the base of the glans is generously supplied with 

 modified sebaceous follicles, the glands of Tyson, sometimes called 

 glandulae odoriferae, on account of their peculiar secretion ; par- 

 tially inspissated accumulations of the latter, together with abraded 

 epithelial scales, constitute the smegma. Upon the glans the in- 

 tegument is very intimately and immovably united to the fibrous 

 tunic of the spongy tissue, and contains large papillae in which 

 rich vascular loops and special nerve-endings are situated; the 

 skin in this situation is free from glands. 



The lymphatics of the penis consist of a superficial and a deep 

 set ; the former extends beneath the integument as a subcutaneous 

 net-work, whose principal vessels accompany the larger blood-vessels 

 in their course and terminate in the superficial inguinal glands, while 

 the latter passes from the cavernous and spongy bodies, along 

 with the deep veins, to the deep lymphatic glands within the pelvis. 

 The lymphatics begin in the interfascicular clefts within the larger 

 trabeculse and the dense fibrous laminae which constitute the sheaths 

 of the erectile masses ; delicate radicles continue the lymph-channels 

 from the clefts to the larger lymphatic vessels. 



The nerves of the penis include trunks derived both from the 

 cerebro-spinal and from the sympathetic system, those from the latter 

 being contributed by the hypogastric plexus ; the sympathetic 

 fibres are distributed entirely to the erectile tissue of the cavernous 

 and spongy bodies. The sensory and motor nerves are ob- 

 tained from the dorsal and superficial perineal branches of the pudic 

 nerve, and terminate within the skin and the mucous membrane. 

 Special nerve-endings, represented by numerous examples of the 

 simple and compound genital corpuscles, as well as by the cor- 

 puscles of Vater, are found in the integument of the glans and of 

 other parts of the penis : the structure of these peculiar bodies has 

 been considered in Chapter VI. 



THE PROSTATE GLAND. 



The prostate body is a compound tubular gland. The outer 

 surface of the organ is invested by a stout fibrous covering, 

 the continuation of the contiguous fascia, beneath which lies an 



