ERECTIIE TISSUES OF THE VFLYA. 979 



open on the inner aspect of the nymphse, outside the hymen or carunculse 

 ruyrtiformes. 



Erectile tissue. All the parts of the vulva are supplied abundantly with 

 blood-vessels, and in certain situations there are masses composed of venous 

 plexuses, or erectile tissue, corresponding to those found in the male. 

 Besides the corpora cavernosa and glans clitoridis, already referred to, there 



Fig. 682. 



Fig. 632. FRONT VIEW OP THE ERECTILE STRUCTURES OP THE EXTERNAL ORGANS IN 

 THE FEMALE (from Kobelt). f 



a, bulbus vestibuli ; b, sphincter vaginee muscle ; e, e, venous plexus or pars inter- 

 media ; /, glans clitoridis ; g, connecting veins ; A, dorsal vein of the clitoris ; k, veins 

 passing beneath the pubes ; I, the obturator vein. 



are two large leech-shaped masses, the bulbi vestibidi, about an inch long, 

 consisting of a network of veins, enclosed in a fibrous membrane, and lying 

 one on each side of the vestibule, a little behind the nymphse. They are 

 rather pointed at their upper extremities, and rounded below : they are sus- 

 pended, as it were, to the crura of the clitoris and the rami of the pubes, 

 covered internally by the mucous membrane, and embraced on the outer side 

 by the fibres of the constrictor vaginse muscle. They are together equi- 

 valent to the bulb of the urethra in the male, which, it will be remembered, 

 presents traces of a median division. In front of the bipartite bulb of the 

 vestibule is a smaller plexus on each side, the vessels of which are directly 

 continuous with those of the bulbus vestibuli behind, and of the glans 

 clitoridis before. This is the para intermedia of Kobelt, and is regarded 

 by him as corresponding with the part of the male corpus spongiosum 

 urethras which is in front of the bulb : it receives large veins coming direct 

 from the nymphse. 



Vessels. The outermost parts of the vulva are supplied by the superficial pudendal 

 arteries; the deeper parts and all the erectile tissues receive branches from the internal 

 pudic arteries, as in the male. The veins also in a great measure correspond ; there is a 

 vena dorsalis clitoridis, receiving branches from the glans and other parts as in the 

 male ; the veins of the bulbus vestibuli pass backwards into the vaginal plexuses, 

 and are connected also with the obturator veins ; above they communicate with the 



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