The diseases known by the general term of syphilis or venereal disease, and arising from impure coition, appear generally in three forms, gonorrhœa, chancres, and bubo. These sometimes exist alone, and sometimes together. As they affect the genital organs and their appendages, a description of these organs is necessary to a full understanding of the subject.
Genital organs and appendages in the male.—This term embraces the penis, testicles, bladder, and kidneys. The form of the penis is familiar to every one. It commences at the bladder, is of a spongy nature, and is composed of three different parts; the two upper and larger are called the cavernous bodies, and the lower the spongy body; these bodies are covered by the skin which comes over the head of the penis, and forms the prepuce. When this skin is drawn back, the head of the penis, or the glans penis is seen, which is a development of the spongy body, and is extremely sensitive. A whitish secretion, with a peculiar odor, forms at the end of the glans, where the prepuce seems to join it. The object of this secretion is to preserve the sensitiveness of the glans, and to facilitate the withdrawal of the prepuce in coition and in urinating. This material sometimes collects, irritates, hardens, and causes much inconvenience. This can be done away with by circumcision, which is performed as follows:—draw an inked line on the skin of the prepuce, corresponding to the base of the glans penis; draw the prepuce forward, and have the inked part held firmly by an assistant with a pair of forceps. Then the surgeon takes that part of the prepuce projecting beyond the forceps with his left hand, and with a bistoury cuts the prepuce at the inked line with his right. When this is done, the lining skin of the prepuce, which cannot be drawn forward, remains entire, and covers the glans; this lining is divided by a single cut with the scissors: then the flaps are removed round to the frenum, and then the two flaps are held together and removed, with the frenum, at one cut. The mode of holding the prepuce, &c. is seen in the cut.
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On the under side of the glans, near the mouth of the water passage, or urethra, the prepuce is attached by a fold called the frenum, or bridle, or martingale of the penis. The use of this frenum is to confine the movements of the prepuce, and to draw down the mouth of the water passage to direct the flow of the urine. Sometimes the frenum is too short, and confines the prepuce too much; it may be slit down with a pair of scissors as far as is considered expedient. The frenum is frequently ruptured in a first coition. The frenum is very elastic, and protects the sensitive surface beneath it as the eyelid does the eye. Sometimes, however, it becomes permanently contracted;—the glans is then denuded, but soon loses its sensibility. The person is sometimes born with this formation.
The cavernous bodies form two tubes, united in most of the length of the penis, separated only by a thin partition, and enveloped in a firm sheath; they are composed of an immense number of cells, principally formed by dilated veins, which communicate with each other; these, when the penis is erected, become filled and even distended with blood. The cavernous bodies terminate abruptly and form rounded points under the glans penis. At the other extremity they separate, and form the crura or legs of the penis.
The spongy body forms the lower and under body of the penis, terminates at one end at the point in the glans, whilst it extends the whole length of the penis, again becomes enlarged, and forms the bulb. The urethra or water passage extends through the spongy body, and connects the penis with the bladder. This cut is a section of the penis showing the three bodies:
| a. Corpora Cavernosa. b. The division or Septum. c. Corpus Spongiosum. d. Urethra. e. The great vein of the Penis. View larger image |
