270 GENERAL ANATOMY. 



of veins, which, instead of being capillary, have more width, 

 are very extensible, and are connected with numerous nervous 

 filaments. 



397. This tissue was first observed in the penis, where its 

 dimensions are very considerable. Vesalius* speaks of it in 

 these terms: corpora hcec (cavernosd) enata adeumfere mo- 

 dum, etc si ex innumeris arteriarum venarumque fasciculis 

 qiiam tenuissimis, simulque proxime implicatis, retia quae- 

 dam ejformarentur, orbiculatim a nervea ilia membranea- 

 que snbstantia comprehensa. Malpighit appears to have 

 made the same observation: sinuum speciem in mammarum 

 tubulis et in pene habemus; in his nonnihil sanguinis re- 

 peritur, ita ut videantur venarum diverticula, vel saltern 

 ipsarum appendices. Hunter^ has seen the same thing with 

 reference to the spongy tissue of the urethra; " It is well to 

 remark," says he, "that the spongy body of the urethra and 

 glans penis are not spongy or cellular, but consist of a plexus 

 'of veins. This structure, he adds is visible in the human sub- 

 ject, but much more distinctly in some animals, as the horse 

 &c." 



The greater part of the anatomists, however, who have ex- 

 amined the structure of the penis, and among other De Graaf, 

 Ruysch, Duverney, Boerhaave, Haller and his disciples, hav- 

 ing mistaken the nature of the cavernous and spongy tissues 

 of the penis, and having considered them as being loose and 

 elastic cellular tissue, forming cells, and interposed between 

 the arteries and veins, most modern anatomists have adopted 

 this error. Duverny, Mascagni, Cuvier, Tiedemann, Ribes, 

 Moreschi, Panizza, Farnese, &c.,have made accurate observa- 

 tions on the erectile tissue of the penis of the elephant, horse, 

 man, &c., as well as on the clitoris of their females. 



398. Although the erectile arrangement of the vessels exist 

 in many parts of the body, nevertheless, there is a certain num~ 

 bes in which it is much more evident. These are the corpus 

 cavernosum of the penis and clitoris, the spongy body of the 



* De carp' Hum. Fabried. Lib. v. cap. 14. 



| Diss. Epist. Varii Jlrgum. In op. omn. vol. ii. 



4 Observations on certain parts of the animal economy. 4to. London, 1786. 



