44 2 THE CORPORA CAVERNOSA. [sect. 200. 



here than elsewhere, but they do, nevertheless, exist as such ; and. Fick will 

 probably convince himself of this, if he will re-examine these elements with 

 the aid of re-asrents. 



§ 200. The Organs of Copulation in the male consist of the 

 penis, an organ composed of three erectile vascular bodies, named 

 spongy or cavernous, corpora spongiosa seu cavernosa. These are 

 attached to the pelvis, and perforated by the urethra; they are 

 covered by special fasciae and by the external skin, and are pro- 

 vided with three special muscles. 



The corpora cavernosa penis are two cylindrical bodies, divided 

 posteriorly, but coming together in front, where they are separated 

 only by a simple incomplete partition. In them we may distin- 

 guish a special fibrous tunic {tunica albuginea s. fibrosa), and the 

 internal spongy tissue. The former is a white, lustrous, firm 

 membrane, half a line thick, and forms the dissepiment, as well as 

 the outer envelope of the spongy bodies. The partition between 

 the corpora cavernosa, where they meet anteriorly, has the form of 

 a thin membrane broken up into separate fibres and laminar, and 

 consists of ordinary fibrous tissue, with numerous, well-developed, 

 fine elastic fibres, as in tendons and ligaments. Within this lies 

 the spongy tissue, of a reddish colour, consisting of innumerable 

 fibres, trabecular, and laminae, which are united to form a fine 

 mesh work, with small roundish or angular spaces, anastomosing 

 with each other in all directions. These are named the venous 

 spaces of the cavernous bodies, and, during life, are filled with 

 blood; thus the structure bears a remarkable resemblance to a 

 sponge. All the trabecular invariably possess a perfectly uniform 

 structure. Externally, they are covered by a simple layer of 

 pavement epithelial cells, intimately connected, and often in- 

 separable — the epithelium of the venous spaces ; upon this follows 

 the proper fibrous tissue, which is composed of almost equal parts 

 of connective tissue, with fine elastic fibres, and of smooth mus- 

 cular fibres; in the interior of many trabecular, but by no means 

 in all, are enclosed arteries and nerves of various sizes. The mus- 

 cular elements of the trabecular are distinctly recognisable by their 

 very characteristic nuclei, which appear on the addition of acetic 

 acid ; but the cells themselves may be isolated in large numbers, 

 especially after treatment with nitric acid of 20 per cent., and they 

 then appear as fibre-cells, o - 02'" to o - 03" / in length, and 0002'" to 

 0'0025'" in breadth. 



The .corpus sp>ongiosum urethra; is constructed in essentially the 



