THE MALE GENERATIVE GLANDS. 191 



processes in an inward direction, which are sometimes larger 

 sometimes smaller, in the form of trabeculae and plates. Con- 

 nective tissue, elastic fibres and smooth muscular substance 

 combined form the latter. 



This incomplete system of septa, as we must call it, is 

 divided and interconnected in the most multifarious manner. 



We have, therefore, a system of spaces and cavities, remind- 

 ing one of a bathing sponge, lined with vascular cells, des- 

 tined to receive venous blood. Herein consists just the pecu- 

 liarity of the so-called cavernous tissue. 



The various " cavernous bodies " present small subordinate 

 structural peculiarities. We pass over these minutiae. 



Constantly filled with blood, they become periodically over- 

 charged with the same, and cause the erection of the male or- 

 gan. 



The cavernous bodies receive their blood supply to a slight 

 extent from the arteria dorsalis penis, essentially from the 

 arteria profundae. These arterial branches, enclosed in the 

 tissue of the septum, pass into the cavernous spaces, partly 

 through a capillary net- work, partly with an intermediate 

 opening (Langer). Corkscrew-like, crooked arterial branches, 

 the so-called arteriae helicinae of J. Miiller, constitute artefacts 

 (Bouget, Langer). 



The various venae emissariae serve for the removal of the 

 blood from the caverni. 



Abundant lymphatic net-works are not wanting in the male 

 urethra and the organ of copulation (Teichmann, Belajeff). 



The theory of the erection we leave to physiology. 



