STRUCTURE OF THE PENIS. 313 



accessory branches to those of the dorsalis penis, with which 

 they anastomose, also supply the albuginea of the corpora 

 cavernosa penis. 



Johann Miiller, as is well known, divided the arteries of the 

 corpus cavernosum into rami nutritii and arteriae helicinae, the 

 former constituting the arteries of the trabecular tissue vasa 

 vasorum which, after frequent anastomoses amongst them- 

 selves, break up into capillaries. The arteriae helicinae he de- 

 scribed as branches having a length of one line, and a diameter 

 of one-fifth of a millimeter, which, both separately and in 

 whorls, project with their horn-like swollen extremities into the 

 cavernous spaces, where they terminate caecally. When erection 

 commences, he conceived that these extremities open, and thus 

 the cavernous spaces become filled with arterial blood. 



Whilst some inquirers, as Krause, Valentin, Kobelt, Kolliker, 

 Hyrtl, Gerlach, and Henle, have adopted these views, and others, 

 as Valentin, M. J. Weber, Arnold, Segond, Kohlrausch, Kolliker, 

 Henle, and Rouget, have contested their truth, Langer has re- 

 cently, by his comprehensive and perfectly correct statements, 

 shown them to be really inaccurate. 



He, with Valentin, Arnold, and Henle, has shown that the 

 greater number of the arteriae helicinae are only one limb of a 

 more or less completely injected arterial loop, and that the 

 occurrence of the arteriae helicinae is dependent upon the form 

 of the muscular trabeculse, since the arterial twigs run straight 

 in the cylindrical or funnel-shaped convoluted laminae of the 

 shaft of the penis, whilst they form arteriae helicinae in the 

 cord-like trabeculse occurring in this part of the organ. We 

 must therefore agree with Langer in considering all the 

 branches of the arteriae corporis cavernosi to present characters 

 that are essentially similar. In regard to the mode in which 

 the circulation is completed in the corpus cavernosum penis, 

 Johann Miiller and Krause agree in stating that the arterial 

 blood passes directly from the arteriae helicinae into the 

 cavernous spaces. According to Valentin, however, the smallest 

 arteries open by funnel-shaped enlargements into the venous 

 spaces, whilst according to Rouget, these spaces are continuous 

 with the arteries of the trabeculae, after they have formed 

 split-like openings at the surface of the trabeculae. 



