84 



PHYSIOLOGY 



CHAP. 



The general morphological conclusions of Sfameni from his 

 own observations and those of Dogiel upon the genital organs 

 are shown in his diagram (Fig. 35). 



Without pausing to discuss and analyse the hypothesis, by 

 which, according to Sfameni, the different nerve corpuscles are to 



be regarded as small peripheral 

 ganglia (analogous to the spinal 

 ganglia), the function of which is 

 to modify the nervous excitations 

 that reach them by way of the true 

 nerve-endings (the intra-dermal and 

 intra-epithelial fibres), we will con- 

 fine ourselves to stating that ac- 

 cording to Sfameni the whole of 

 the nervous apparatus which he re- 

 presents must be the substrate not 

 only of the male and female genital 

 organs, but of the organ of tactile 

 sense in general. Consequently, 

 the anatomists who follow Sfameni 

 neglect all the physiological 

 evidence, and arrive at a theory 

 which is wholly contrary to that 

 which physiologists have adopted 

 from minute researches into the 



FIG. 30. Krause's club, from mucous mem- FIG. 31.- -Spherical genital corpuscle from female 



braue of vulva of bitch. (Sfameni.) ?*./., clitoris. (Sfameni.) %./., myelinated nerve - 



myelinated nerve-fibre; g.s., granulated fibre ; a., axonal network, 

 substance ; c.s., connective sheath. 



different modalities of sensation at distinct parts of the body- 

 surface. The skin, in which physiologists distinguish four dif- 

 ferent senses, possesses, according to Sfameni, only one of the five 

 senses recognised by physiology from all time, i.e. tactile sensi- 

 bility. This enormous disparity proves the vast superiority of 

 physiological methods of research over the anatomical methods of 

 analysis of the sense-organs. 



The topography of the different kinds of sensibility in the 

 human penis was studied by v. Frey. One of the most important 

 facts which he discovered is that the gland of the penis has no 



