GENERAL ANATOMY OF ERECTILE TISSUE. 



179 



is seen also in other positions in the inferior animals, as in the 

 wattles of the turkey, and tongue of the chameleon. It is 

 developed also accidentally in different parts of the body, as in 

 Fig. 168.* erectile tumors, (aneurisms^from 



anastomosis,) and in fungus hae- 

 matodes. In some of the organs 

 it is enclosed in a fibrous sheath, 

 which limits the extent of the 

 expansion and determines its 

 form. Its development, how- 

 ever, is found more perfect in 

 some organs than the rest, and it 

 is most so in the corpus caver- 

 nosum penis, and corpus spon- 

 giosum urethra. In these parts 

 it has principally been made the 

 subject of investigation. The 

 commonly received opinion, and 

 which is kept up by the appear- 

 ance which anatomical prepara- 

 tions present when the common 

 cellular tissue of the parts is 

 filled with wax to exhibit their 

 general form, is this; that the 

 erectile tissue consists of loose 

 elastic tissue divided into innu- 

 merable cells, into which, during 

 erection, blood is poured by the 

 arteries and taken up subse- 

 quently by the veins. Such was 

 the opinion of Ruysch, Haller, 

 and Bichat. Vesalius, Mascagni and Hunter, were of the opin- 

 ion that the tissue was made up of a multitude of arteries and 

 veins, the latter predominating greatly in number, closely inter- 

 woven, and resting upon the cells ;* which are formed by pro- 

 cesses or trabecula sent inwards from the general investing sheath 



* See Erectile Tissue, Diet. Des Sciences Medicales, by Dupuytren and Rul- 

 lier. P. 



