THE ACCESSORY REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 265 



by sexual emotion). It is interesting to note, therefore, that Budge ^ 

 aud Eckhard^ were able to cause the penis to erect by electrical 

 stimulation of the cervical cord, the pons, and the crura cerebri. 

 The same result was obtained by Pussep by exciting a definite 

 region in the cerebral cortex. In this case erection was followed by 

 ejaculation.* 



It is stated also that hanging and decapitation in man are 

 sometiaies followed by erection.* According to Spina,^ who experi- 

 mented on the guinea-pig, section of the spinal cord, near the last 

 costb-vertebral articulation, is invariably succeeded by erection and 

 ejaculation. 



There are certain facts which seem to show that the higher nerve 

 centres exercise an inhibitory influence over the sexual processes. 

 Thus, Eetterer ^ states that it is easier to induce erection by external 

 irritation in a dog whoBe spinal cord has been cut through, than in 

 a normal animal. 



Eckhard ^ was the first to show that the penis in the dog could 

 be induced to erect experimentally by the stimulation of certain 

 . nerves which he called the nervi erigentes. These nerves, which 

 are truly vaso-dilator, were found in the dog to arise from the 1st 

 and 2nd sacral nerves, and in some cases from the 3rd sacral nerve 

 also. Gaskell* showed that in the rabbit the erector fibres leave 

 the spinal cord by the anterior (and not by the posterior) roots of 

 the 2nd and 3rd sacral nerves. Morat ^ also found that in the dog 

 these fibres are contained only in the anterior roots of the 1st and 

 2nd sacral nerves. 



The corresponding parts in the female are similarly innervated. 

 Thus, Langley ^^ has described stimulation of the sacral nerves in the 

 vertebral canal of the rabbit as producing dilatation and flushing of 

 the vulva. These effects were most marked on exciting the 3rd 



' Budge, "Ueber das Centrum genitospinale des Nervus sympatheticus," 

 Virchow's Archiv, vol. xv., 1858. 



- Eckhard, loc. cii. 



■' Pussep, "Ueber die Gehirnzentren der Penisekretion und des Samenei- 

 gussea," Inaug.-Dissert., St. Petersbvirg, 1902. Abstract in Le Physiologiste 

 Itusse, vol. iii., 1904. 



■• Gbtz, " tjber Erektion und Ejaculation bei Erhangten," Inaiig.-Dissert,, 

 Berlin, 1898. 



* Spina, " Experimeritelie Beitrage zu der Lehre von der Erektion und 

 Ejaculation," Wiener Med. Blatter, 1897. 



" Retterer, Article " Erection," in Richet's Dictioniiaire de Physiologie, vol. v., 

 Paris, 1902. 



' Eckhard, loc. cit. 



* Gaskell, "On the Structure, Distribution, and Function of the Nerves 

 which Innervate the Visceral and Vascular Systems," Jour, of Physiol., vol. vii., 

 1886. 



" Morat, "Les Nerfs Vaso-dilatateurs et la Loi de Majendie," .irch. de /%;/.?., 

 1890. 



1" Langley, "The Innervation of the Pelvic Viscei-a," Proo. Phys. Soc, -lour. 

 * of Physiol., vol. xii., 1891. 



9A 



