Psychology of sex - Total No. of Records in System :: 2032

centrallyTHE BIOLOGY OF SEXtumescence, the physical phenomena become more andmore acutely localized in the sexual organs. The processwhich was at firstpredominantly nervous and psychic nowbecomes more prominently vascular. The ancient sexualrelationship of the skin asserts itself; there is a markedsurface congestion showing itself in various ways. Theface tends to become red, and exactly the same phenomenonistaking place in the genital organs; "an erection,"it has been said, "is a blushing of the penis/' The differenceis that in the genital organs this heightened vascularityhas a definite and specific function to accomplishthe erection of the male organ which fits it to enter thefemale parts and that consequently there has been developedin the penis that special kind of vascular mechanism,consisting of veins in connective tissue with unstripedmuscular fibers, termed erectile tissue. This process, whichmay be set in action either or ,peripherally, isprobably controlled by the sympathetic plexuses in thepelvis.It is not only the male who is supplied with erectiletissue which in the process of tumescence becomes congestedand swollen. The female also in the correspondingexternal genital regionis likewise supplied with erectiletissue now also charged with blood, and exhibits the samechanges as have taken place in her partner, though theyare not conspicuously visible. In the anthropoid apes, asthe gorilla, the large clitoris and nymphae become prominentin sexual excitement, but the lessdevelopment ofthe clitoris in women, together with the specificallyhuman evolution of the mons veneris and larger lips,renders this sexual turgescence practically invisible,though it is perceptible to touch in an increased degreeof spongy and elastic tension. The whole feminine genitalcanal, including the uterus, indeed, is richly supplied with