378 DENDRITIC APPENDAGE OF UROGENITAL PAPILLA 



and " Balken " in serial sections, we soon discover that the former 

 are nothino- but the swollen dendritic and not anastomosing- branches 

 of blood-vessels and that the latter are not bars but tissues separating 

 the bloodvessels. The erectile nature of the organ seems therefore 

 highly doubtful. From the description which I have given in the 

 preceding pages it seems to me evident that the appendage in question 

 is a liighhj developed (jland. The enormous surface-extension of the 

 organ and the unusual development of the venous system ma}'' be 

 taken as the indications of its importance and activity. Its presence 

 in both sexes and its early development must be taken into account 

 in any explanation of its physiological significance. We are for the 

 present obliged to leave it to future research to determine in what 

 period of life or on what occasions it is actually functional and what 

 service it then renders. 



