Erection

“ The more the woman spurs him on to pull, with shouts and blows, the greater his sexual excitement becomes. Erection occurs (probably mechanically favored by compression of the dorsal vein of the penis, which, when the cords are strained, must be closed by the pressure of the hard ring) . With increasing erection, the whole member is compressed by the ring, and finally ejaculation occurs, with lustful feeling. ”

“ The numerous small blood vessels, with which the penis is supplied, under the influence of sexual excitement, flood the organ with blood, causing it to become erect or rigid. This condition is known as an erection. ”

“ Is what the pedicon loses in the anus of the cinede anything else but the substance of a man, which the masturbator wastes between his fingers?
As it is in the nature of the virile member to rise at the mere sight of a pretty woman’s naked body, the amorous desire in that state often craves imperiously for relief, for “man in erection is not overwise.” ”

“ This erectile apparatus, when the supply of arterial blood is greatly accelerated and at the same time the outflow of venous blood is diminished, becomes distended with blood, enlarged and stiffened; the process of erection plays an important part, as we shall explain more fully later, in the production of sexual excitement and sexual pleasure during the act of copulation. ”

“ If one day a boy, embracing, as often before, his girl friend, has an erection, and then perhaps endeavours to draw her towards him so that her body presses against his genital organs, or even has an ejaculation with a voluptuous sensation, we may assume the influence of a contrectation impulse, which has existed for some time, but only now has for the first time been localised in the peripheral genital organs. ”

“ We know, too, that even in the adult, non-sexual erections may occur. The clearest instances of this are met with in the form of171 priapism, the principal characteristic of this condition being the occurrence of permanent erection which has nothing at all to do with the sexual impulse. The same is true for the most part of matutinal erections, the precise cause of which is not yet determined. They are commonly referred to distension of the bladder, which is supposed by reflex action to lead to distension of the corpora cavernosa of the penis. ”

“ Stimulation of the centre leads to distension of the penis with blood, and thus to erection of that organ. The stimulation of the centre can be effected in either of two ways.
In the first place, by psychical processes. Thus, in a man, the sight of a woman exercises such a stimulus, the stimulation proceeding from the brain along the spinal cord to reach the centre. The psychical stimulus may also consist of reminiscences. In this way the memory of an attractive woman may be just as effective in causing erection as if she were actually visible at the moment ”

“ The essential condition for the man is sufficient erection. Anjel (Arch. für Psych., viii, H. 2) calls attention to the fact that in sexual excitement the erection centre is not alone influenced,—the nervous excitement is distributed to the entire vasomotor system of nerves. ”

“ In infants, erections may arise from external stimuli or from distension of the bladder, which must be distinguished from the erections which have a definitely sexual causation. We must, of course, admit the possibility that such primarily non-sexual erections may secondarily give rise to sexual processes; inasmuch as by the stimuli resulting from the erection, the child's attention may be directed to the genital organs. ”

“ If the veins can empty themselves, as they naturally do when the nervous excitement which constricted them locally passes, the erection will subside without any loss of semen, by the mere passing back of the locally excessive blood into the ordinary circulatory system. ”

“ The remembrance of such a failure and the distress and shame attached to it, even efforts to produce erection indirectly for another attempt, constitute further causes of inhibition of the cerebro-spinal activity; they temporarily extinguish the sexual appetite, and prevent by their interference the automatic mechanism of erection which they strive to produce. The greater the fear of failure, the more the psychic impotence increases. This phenomenon may be limited to a certain woman, but it is more often general. Sometimes an incomplete erection is produced, which is insufficient. ”

“ This is often associated with sadistic feelings, and this alike in men and in women. In other cases, a woman will make attempts at coitus with a little boy, having first induced erection of his penis by manipulating the organ, by tickling it, or in some other way. ”

“ When erections occur in the child, we cannot always trace them to external stimuli, for in many cases they are due to stimuli of other kinds. Erection may, in fact, result from internal stimuli, connected with the development of the genital organs, and more especially that of the testicles. Moreover, such developmental stimuli may induce the child to manipulate the genital organs, and thus give rise to masturbation, without in the first instance causing erection. ”

“ Ligation of the Dorsal Vein of the Penis as a Cure for Atonic Impotence.
BY JOE S. WOOTEN; B. S., M. D., AUSTIN, TEXAS. [1]
The normal physiological process of erection of the penis is produced by excitation of both brain and spinal cord centers. It may also be produced by impressions originating outside of the nerve centers or any portion of the nervous system. The spinal cord centers are probably located in the cervical and sacral portions of the cord. An erection is induced by one of three ways: (1) By an increased influx of blood to the organ ”

“ In normal conditions, however, much more powerful stimuli are needed to cause ejaculation than those which are competent to give rise to erection. For this reason, erections often occur without leading to ejaculation, whereas in normal conditions ejaculation hardly ever occurs without erection. In fact, ejaculation in the absence of erection is almost peculiar to pathological states, and may occur, for instance, in many forms of impotence, in which the ejaculation centre still remains susceptible to stimulation, whilst the erection centre is exhausted. ”

“ When at night, safe from discovery, I can put on one article after another, from corset to apron and bracelet, I am perfectly satisfied, and devote myself to some quiet employment, inwardly happy and full of delight in doing it. While dressing, an erection usually occurs, but it is never followed by an ejaculation, and soon disappears. I also try to approximate the female appearance in externals, by arranging my hair appropriately and removing the beard, which I should have preferred to tear out. ”

“ The strong and continuous stimulations render the nerves and their centres inert in reaction and weak in power. The centres of erection and ejaculation become blunted, the inhibitory centres get very sensitive, and erection cannot be provoked. When the nerve centres presiding over the function of erection get into the habit of not responding to the highest excitations of the tactile stimuli, they do not respond even to the stimulations concarnationis. ”

“ The inertness of the virile member may be caused by the inconveniences of age, and this either on the part of the woman, as in Martial, VI., 23:
“You require my penis, Lesbia, to be ever in erection for you; believe me a man’s member is not like a finger. ”

“ The fear and anxiety from which such persons suffer has an inhibitory influence upon 336the erection of the penis. In some instances, this inhibitory influence is partial only, and the man thus affected, while perfectly competent in intercourse with a prostitute, who employs means of sexual stimulation to which he has become accustomed, is unable to complete intercourse with his wife, who is ignorant and innocent, and assumes a purely passive role; or it may be that erection is not sufficiently powerful to bring about rupture of the hymen, and thus to overcome the difficulties primae noctis. ”

“ It often happens, indeed, that such a boy is himself greatly astonished to find, some day, that these ideas are reflected to the genital organs, giving rise to erection; or, when he is embracing a girl, to experience erection and ejaculation. In the sexually mature normal man, the detumescence-impulse and the contrectation-impulse act in unison, and hence he is impelled towards intimate contact with the woman, and is ultimately driven to effect detumescence by the practice of coitus. ”

“ This done he withdraws his affair, and makes all haste to get down again from her.
Such a man—as was said by a writer—is quick in ejaculation and slow as to erection; after the trembling, which follows the ejaculation of the seed, his chest is heavy and his sides ache. ”

“ The penis and the vulva are alike furnished with erectile tissue. The penis has to be erected in order to penetrate into the vagina, while the female organs add their share in facilitating the act both by the erection of the tissue round the vulva and by the outpouring of a lubricating secretion which bathes all the parts. The mechanism of this is a nervous one, and its originating cause while partly physical is chiefly mental, due to the emotions aroused by love and courtship, and thus in every act of coitus properly realized, an essential preliminary is an abbreviated courtship. ”

“ When erection is completed in both the man and the woman the conditions necessary for conjugation have at last been fulfilled. In all animals, even those most nearly allied to man, coitus is effected by the male approaching the female posteriorly. In man the normal method of male approach is anteriorly, face to face. ”

“ The semen also shows the presence of different kinds of epithelia, the pavement epithelia from the fossa navicularis urethra, the round cells from the prostate, and the columnar epithelia from Cowper’s glands.
Erection.—The male sexual activity consists in the essential features, intromission and ejaculation. For intromission erection is an absolute necessity. The lumen of the vagina is only virtual, there is no real lumen. It follows that only an unflexible body could penetrate into this organ, where the semen has to be deposited for the production of the new being. ”

“ The masculine member applied to women is evidently that clitoris of such proportions in erection, that the tribads can use it like a penis; the female apparatus fitted on to man is nothing else but the posterior orifice, which itches in the case of cinedes, just as the vulva titillates women. ”

“ Here, then, are animals, in whom the erectile tissue evidently performs the part attributed by phrenologists exclusively to the cerebellum. Why may not the same thing exist in our species? Are not the penis and clitoris, generally speaking, much larger in those who have a marked propensity for the pleasures of love? Is not their erection the most constant sign of the activity of the venereal sense? Is not the erectile tissue developed at puberty, at the same time with this sense, and does it not collapse in old age? ”

“ Conversely, on many girls, masculine attributes, and especially the male genital organs, sometimes exert a stimulating influence. But in these cases also, the complete fusion of the processes of detumescence and contrectation occurs very gradually. Sometimes the boy himself is greatly astonished to discover that close contact with a person whom he loves leads to erection and even ejaculation. ”

“ If the young and vigorous individual should in the beginning be able to command quite a number of erections in one night, after a certain time, he will be glad if he could have one complete erection during a night, or even once a week. In this way Nature herself regulates such excesses and takes care that “the trees should not sweep the stars down.” ”

“ When the young person is disturbed suddenly, his hands, if he has not had time to remove them, will be found on or near the genital organs. The penis, also, may be found in a state of erection; or you may even find marks of recent pollution, which might be known by the peculiar odor arising from the semen, and which comes from the soiled fingers. Have an eye to those young persons, whose hands, when in bed, or during sleep, are in the position described: they are onanists, or will become so. The same is true in those who frequently have erections of the penis. ”

“ If erections of his little penis occur during sleep, or if he cannot urinate promptly on rising in the morning, because of an erection, let these conditions beget an anxiety for his welfare and at once seek a judicious physician, who will be able to prescribe a medicament to arrest all further development of sexual precocity—an affliction so baneful to the young. ”

“ Erection ensues independently of the will or imagination, as instanced on awaking in the morning—the cause is most probably a distended bladder; the phenomena may be a sympathetic irritability of the muscles of the perinœum, especially the erectores; there is a general pelvic disturbance, the nervous excitement is increased, and the rush of blood (obedient to that excitement) is sent to the penis: such, I believe, is the sympathy between all these structures. The will exercises the same, and the results of the imagination do not materially differ ”

“ While the penis both receives and imparts specific voluptuous sensations, and is at the same time both the intromittent organ for the semen and the conduit for the urine, the sole function of the clitoris is to enter into erection under the stress of sexual emotion and receive and transmit the stimulatory voluptuous sensations imparted to it by friction with the masculine genital apparatus. ”