272 GENERAL ANATOMY 



communications. When one of the arteries of the penis is in- 

 jected, the injection, if very fine and penetrating, after filling 

 the arterial ramifications, and the internal venous plexus, which 

 constitutes the corpus cavernosum, and thus producing erec- 

 tion, returns by the dorsal vein. The corpus cavernosum is 

 still more easily filled by injecting through the vein. Thus 

 the pretended cells of the corpus cavernosum, are merely very 

 large roots of veins forming a complicated plexus, and anasto- 

 mosing like capillary vessels. 



The erectile tissue of the urethra and glans have the same 

 disposition; the same is the case with respect to that of the 

 clitoris and nymphae. 



Erection, in the organs of copulation as in the papillae, is 

 produced by the repletion of the erectile vessels. This reple- 

 tion may depend on the afflux of arterial blood, which is ac- 

 companied by an exaltation of the sensibility, and the reten- 

 tion of the venous blood, or by both causes united. 



401. There is still a part whose texture and phenomena 

 greatly resemble those of the erectile organs: this is the spleen, 

 which, by this means, seems to be a diverticulum of the blood. 

 If the spleen be exposed in a living animal, and the course of 

 the blood in the splenic vein be arrested by pressure, this or- 

 gan swells and greatly augments in size; but it quickly assumes 

 its natural appearance as soon as the circulation is re-establish- 

 ed. The accessions of intermittent fever are accompanied, 

 during the chill, by a manifest swelling of this organ, which is 

 more or less completely dissipated when the accession is at an 

 end. It would appear that the same thing takes place during 

 digestion. 



402. The erectile tissue is sometimesaccidentally developed 

 in the organism. This production has been described under 

 the names of varicose tumour, aneurism by anastomosis, aneu- 

 rism of the smaller arteries, telangiectasis, &c. 



Its anatomical characters are precisely the same as those of 

 the natural erectile tissue. It is a more or less voluminous, or 

 more or less circumscribed mass, sometimes surrounded by a 

 thin fibrous envelope, presenting internally an appearance of 

 cells or spongy cavities; consisting in reality of an inextricable 



