314 EXTERNAL GENERATIVE ORGANS, BY E. KLEIN. 



Langer has shown that the circulation in the corpus caver- 

 nosum penis varies in its ultimate distribution in the cortex 

 and in the middle parts. In the cortex small, but not capil- 

 lary arterial branches, visible only with a lens, penetrate the 

 coarser cortical layer ; but besides these, in the periphery, the 

 blood traverses true capillaries, especially those of the finer 

 capillary plexus here present. In the interior of the erectile 

 body the blood likewise flows through capillaries. 



The entire periphery of the erectile body is the principal 

 atrium through which the arterial blood gains access to the 

 erectile plexus. 



Moreover, in the interior of the erectile body there are 

 direct anastomoses between the arteries and the larger veins, 

 and this is effected by conical rootlets which form a con- 

 stituent part of the internal convolute of veins. 



Thus there are three modes in which the blood passes from 

 the arteries into the veins in the corpus cavernosum penis; 

 namely, (1) through direct anastomoses between the larger 

 arterial and venous branches ; (2) through the coarser cortical 

 plexus which receives the finest arterial branches; and (3) im- 

 mediately through capillary vessels, as in the finer cortical 

 plexus, and in the interior of the corpora cavernosa. The 

 erectile plexus of the penis is a true venous plexus. 



The veins that emerge from the corpora cavernosa penis are 

 the dorsal veins which open into the vena dorsalis, and consti- 

 tute the vense emissaries of Miiller, and the veins of the inferior 

 surface of the penis, which are the venae emissaries of 

 Kohlrausch. . 



The former arise directly from the cavernous plexus, the 

 latter from the interior of the corpora cavernosa, and pass 

 through spaces of the cortical plexus. This relation is of great 

 importance for the production of erection, since by the filling 

 of the cortical plexus, which, as above mentioned, is the chief 

 atrium compression of the efferent veins must necessarily be 

 produced. 



In the crura penis the efferent venous channels form the 

 vense profundse. These, as Langer has shown, are by no means 

 direct continuations of the large erectile veins, but arise from 

 them by smaller rootlets. 



