Love: A Treatise on the Science of Sex-attraction / for the use of Physicians and Students of Medical Jurisprudence

by Bernard Simon Talmey

Colliculus
1, orifice of the sinus pocularis; 2, orifices of the prostatic ducts.

Colliculus.—The colliculus is a massive button, 3 millimeters in height and in breadth, and lies anteriorly to the fossa prostatica. On the summit of the colliculus there is an opening which leads to a pear-shaped pouch, the so-called sinus pocularis, a remnant of the Müllerian ducts. The two orifices of the ejaculatory ducts are found within the pouch, near its opening into the urethra. The orifices of the prostatic ducts are situated in the furrows, on either side of the colliculus. In the state of erection the colliculus fills out the urethra completely and closes it up tightly and absolutely, so that not a drop of urine can pass out of the bladder or escape during ejaculation.

Cowper’s glands.—Cowper’s glands are two acinose glands of the size of a pea. They are embedded between the muscular fibres of the musculus transversus perinei profundus. The ducts run between the two leaflets of the diaphragma urogenitale to the posterior end of the bulbus, hence within the cavernous tissue near the septum and open on either side of the bulbus on the floor of the bulbous urethra.

CUT XI.

Crosscut through the penis.
1, vena dorsalis; 2, arteriæ dorsales; 3, septum; 4, corpora cavernosa; 5, tunica albuginea; 6, vena profunda; 7, urethra; 8, corpus cavernosum urethræ.

Penis.—The penis is chiefly made up of three erectile bodies, the corpus cavernosum urethrae and the two porpora cavernosa penis. The latter arise each from the ramus descendens ossis pubis, by strong fibrous processes, the crura. The crura converse and coalesce at the inferior margin of the symphysis to which they are fastened by the ligamentum suspensorium penis mediale. The anterior ends of the corpora cavernosa are rounded. They are situated in the furrow of the glans of the penis. After their coalescence the two corpora are divided only by a fibrous septum. The lower surface of the corpora shows a deep furrow which serves as a receptacle for the corpus cavernosum urethrae. The latter thus occupies the same relation to the corpora cavernosa penis as does the ramrod to a double-barreled gun.

The corpus cavernosum urethrae forms two expansions. The anterior expansion is represented by the glans penis, the posterior expansion by the bulb, a tuberous enlargement, situated between the diverging crura of the corpora cavernosa penis. The bulb is covered by the musculus bulbo-cavernosus.

Structure of the corpora cavernosa.—The walls of the corpora cavernosa are made up of a dense fibrous elastic membrane, the tunica albuginea. From this tunica arise numerous trabeculae, composed of fibrous tissue and non-striped muscular fibres. In this way a sponge-like tissue is formed in which the spongy superstructure consists of elastic fibres. The mesh-spaces are filled with circulating blood. The spaces of these cavernous bodies are covered with an endothelial lining like blood-vessels. The caverns communicate with each other by the arteriae helicinae, short arterial branches, anastomosing in the cavernous spaces. The arteries, capillaries, and veins pass along the trabeculae of the spongy tissue and open into the caverns. The caverns may thus be considered as enlarged capillaries. The arteria and vena profundae penis run through the middle of the corpus.

The arteries within the trabeculae possess not only circular muscular fibres, as all other arteries, but also longitudinal fibres. These muscular fibres are normally contracted and thus prevent the blood from flowing into the cavernous spaces. If by some inhibitory influence the muscles are relaxed, the caverns are immediately filled with blood. This blood has to return by the vena profunda communis which passes through the unstriped muscular fibres of the musculus transversus perinei profundus. Hence by the contraction of this muscle the veins are compressed, and the blood is prevented from flowing off. As a result, the spongy and cavernous bodies become turgid and the corpora cavernosa penis become stone hard. The blood of the corpus cavernosum urethra, on the other hand, returns through the vena dorsalis penis which enters the abdomen through connective tissue parts, beneath the symphysis. For this reason the corpus cavernosum urethrae remains compressible even during erection.