Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in PregnancyEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in Pregnancy
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
In accordance with the supreme importance of the part they play, and the
intimately psychic nature of that part, the sexual organs, both internal
and external, are very richly supplied with nerves. While the internal
organs are very abundantly furnished with sympathetic nerves and ganglia,
the external organs show the highest possible degree of specialization of
the various peripheral nervous devices which the organism has developed
for receiving, accumulating, and transmitting stimuli to the brain.[77]
"The number of conducting cords which attach the genitals to the
nervous centers is simply enormous," writes Bryan Robinson; "the
pudic nerve is composed of nearly all the third sacral and
branches from the second and fourth sacral. As one examines this
nerve he is forced to the conclusion that it is an enormous
supply for a small organ. The periphery of the pudic nerve
spreads itself like a fan over the genitals." The lesser sciatic
nerve supplies only one muscle--the gluteus maximus--and then
sends the large pudendal branch to the side of the penis, and
hence the friction of coitus induces active contraction of the
gluteus maximus, "the main muscle of coition." The large pudic
and the pudendal constitute the main supply of the external
genitals. In women the pudic nerve is equally large, but the
pudendal much smaller, possibly, Bryan Robinson suggests, because
women take a less active part in coitus. The nerve supply of the
clitoris, however, is three or four times as large as that of the
penis in proportion to size. (F.B. Robinson, "The Intimate
Nervous Connection of the Genito-Urinary Organs With the
Cerebro-Spinal and Sympathetic Systems," _New York Medical
Journal_, March 11, 1893; id., _The Abdominal Brain_, 1899.)
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