, the two
nervous bodies, the septum, the urethra, the glans, four muscles and the
vessels. The nervous bodies (so called) are surrounded with a thick
white, penetrable membrane, but their inner substance is spongy, and
consists chiefly of veins, arteries, and nervous fibres, interwoven like
a net. And when the nerves are filled with animal vigour and the
arteries with hot, eager blood, the penis becomes distended and erect;
also the neck of the _vesicula urinalis_,[5] but when the influx of
blood ceases, and when it is absorbed by the veins, the penis becomes
limp and flabby. Below those nervous bodies is the urethra, and whenever
they swell, it swells also. The penis has four muscles; two shorter ones
springing from the _Cox endix_ and which serve for erection, and on that
account they are called _erectores_; two larger, coming from _sphincters
ani_, which serve to dilate the urethra so as to discharge the semen,
and these are called dilatantes, or wideners. At the end of the penis is
the _glans_, covered with a very thin membrane, by means of which, and
of its nervous substance, it becomes most extremely sensitive, and is
the principal seat of pleasure in copulation. The outer covering of the
_glans_ is called the _preputium_ (foreskin), which the Jews cut off in
circumcision, and it is fastened by the lower part of it to the _glans_.
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