324 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 



either by corporeal or mental stimulus, and of detu- 

 mifyingand collapsing after the return of the blood.* (I) 



536. When in a flaccid state, it is considerably bent 

 at its origin from the neck of the bladder,t and thus 

 perfectly adapted for the discharge of the urine, 

 but quite unfit for the emission of semen,;}: because the 

 origin of the urethra then forms an acute angle with the 

 openings of the seminal vesicles. 



537. When the penis swells from desire, the prostate 

 fluid generally flows first, and indeed is often dis- 

 charged pure, though rarely together with the urine: 

 its principal use is to be emitted with the semen, either 

 by its albuminous lubricity correcting the viscidity of 

 the former and promoting its emission, or contributing 

 something peculiar to generation. 



538. The emission of semen is excited by its abun- 

 dance in the vesicles and by sexual instinct: it is 

 effected by the violent tentigo which prevents the course 

 of the urine and, as it were, throws the way open for 

 the semen ; by a kind of spasmodic contraction of the 

 vesiculae seminales ; by a convulsion of the levatores 

 ani § and of the accelcratores urinae ; and by a short 

 and less violent succussion of the whole system, almost 



* A phenomenon worthy of remark, even from the light which it promises 

 to throw on this function in general, is the erection so frequently observed in 

 those who are executed, especially if strangled. Consult, after Garmann's com- 

 piled farrago {de Miracttlis Mortuorum. xi. 7 sq.), Morgagni, De scd. et cans. 

 morb. xix. 19 sq. (K) 



f See Camper, Demonstration, anal, pathologic. L. ii. tab. iii. fig. 1 . 



t Gysb. Remit, Defabrica et usuriscenivt uropoieticonim. LB. 1774. 4to. 

 reprinted in Hallcr's Collection of Anatomical Dissections. T. iii. tab. iii. 



§ Carpus on Mundinus, p. 190 b. and 310. 



