THE PENIS. 215 



scribed by Sir Everard Home, being the result of enlarge- 

 ment by disease of that portion of the organ situated 

 below the urethra and behind the duets of the vesicular 

 seminales, and which the absence of resistance permits to 

 grow out in that direction more freely than elsewhere, is, 

 with great propriet3^, described by Thompson as the pos- 

 terior median portion. The normal dimensions of the 

 prostate are an inch and a half transversely, an inch 

 longitudinally, and three-quarters of an inch vertically. 



41 The prostate consists of organic muscular fibres, 

 arranged in a circular manner around its long axis, 

 "irough which passes the urethra. It has no claim, 

 lerefore, to be regarded as a gland at all, in the sense in 

 rhich that term is used to classify certain structures in 

 human body, but rather as a muscular body permeated 

 urethral glands." 1 On section, the prostate is very firm 

 the feel, and is of a reddish color. The orifices of its 

 lands are numerous, and open into the prostatic part of 

 le urethra. 



THE PENIS. 



The PENIS, as has been already seen, is connected to the 

 ?lvic bones by the ligamentum suspensorium and the two 

 ura formed by the erectores penis. It is composed of the 

 corpora cavernosa, corpus spongiosum, and glans. These 

 are covered with integument, loosely attached by cellular 

 tissue, that portion of it which invests the glans being 

 called the prepuce. 



The corpora cavernosa constitute the bulk of the penis ; 

 separating posteriorly, to join with the crura, the^y unite at 

 the root of the penis, and are firmly connected together by 

 a fibrous septum ; they terminate anteriorly in a blunt ex- 

 tremity, covered in by, and closely united with, the glans. 

 Flattened upon their superior surface, a slight groove re- 

 ceives the dorsal arter} T and vein and the dorsal nerve of 

 the penis ; these all extend to the glans. The under surface 

 of the corpora cavernosa is more deeply grooved to receive 

 the corpus spongiosum; this commences at the root of the 

 penis, in a dilated extremity called the bulb, which is em- 

 braced by the acceleratores urina?, and, continuing along the 

 under surface of the corpora cavernosa, expands at their 



1 Thompson 011 the Prostate. 



