Misunderstandings about the glans

First, a few misunderstandings need clearing up: one, that the penis is a highly sensitive organ. That is totally untrue: the number of free nerve endings, compared, for example, with the lips, is extremely small. Only underneath the glans are there a relatively large number of free nerve endings.

The second misunderstanding is that the penis has to be active to become erect. This is also untrue: on the contrary, in order for the penis to stay flaccid the smooth muscle cells in the erectile tissue of the penis are contracted virtually all day long. At night during the rem sleep phase, and in sexual arousal, these smooth muscle cells relax, the spongiform network in the erectile tissue can enlarge and there is an erection.

The third, most serious misunderstanding is that the sole purpose of the glans or head of the penis is to be sucked on. It’s true that the glans is soft, but for a quite different reason. In the view of the gynae­cologist Robert Latou Dickinson (1861-1950) it had become soft in the course of evolution so as not to put too much pressure on the woman’s internal sex organs during intercourse. However, this proved an incorrect interpretation.

The glans forms the end of the corpus spongiosum, the mass of erectile tissue surrounding the urethra. Just as in the twin sections of erectile tissue, the corpora cavernosa, the pressure in the corpus spon­giosum increases during erection, but to a much lesser extent than in the corpora cavernosa. Otherwise the urethra would be squeezed shut so that the sperm could not be discharged at its intended destination.

Relatively little attention has been paid to the glans in poetry. Only the short-lived, doomed, alcoholic poet Paul Verlaine sang its praises in ‘Hombres’ (1891): ‘my choice morsel, with its gush of divine phos­phorus’. The poem is part of a collection published clandestinely after his death, in which this famous poet presents himself licking and gorg­ing, revelling in sex with women, but also yearning for homosexual love.

In Ancient Greece competitors in the Olympic Games were naked. However, it was forbidden for them to display their glans — that was considered vulgar. So a ribbon was bound round the foreskin, for what reason is not entirely clear.

Erection

In ruminants a globe-shaped glans transforms into a thread-like appendage, which during mating extends into the uterus; in rams this is 4 cm long. In carnivores and insectivores there are spines and thorns in the glans. At rest these are hidden in a kind of sac. In an erection, however, they protrude, giving the female extra stimulation. Such protuberances occur in man too. In the scientific literature there are descriptions of almost a hundred patients with such abnormalities. They are almost always a kind of horn, which in over 30 per cent of cases involves cancer. Treatment is fortunately simple and usually solves the problem: the diseased part is removed surgically. Urologists call this a partial penis amputation, though after such a disfiguring operation it is still perfectly possible to enjoy a normal sex life. Unfortunately there is often a lack of good counselling in such cases.

In certain cultures men made protrusions for their glans. In nine­teenth-century Java, for example, this was quite normal. Grooves were cut in several places and filled with tiny stones. Once the wounds were completely healed, the glans had an irregular, bumpy surface which provided extra vaginal stimulation. For the same purpose the Dayaks and other primitive peoples drove a bamboo pipe right through the glans or put a bone through it. When performing everyday activities the bone was replaced by a feather; only the tribal chief was entitled to have a second hole made. In Europe too people looked for ways to
increase women’s pleasure in coitus. In eighteenth-century France penis rings with hard protuberances, called aides, were used, while in Russia such rings were fitted with tiny white teeth; in South America the preference was for horsehair. Modern ribbed condoms are the latest variant.

The genitalia of the kamikaze drone of the honey bee are also dec­orated, with yellowish protuberances and all kinds of fringes and hairs: at orgasm they explode within the queen like a spring and form a nat­ural chastity belt, which bars access to other suitors, even though the mating drone itself drops dead.

Some rodents and felines are blessed with true foreskin glands, pro­ducing, for example, musk, which quite a few women use in perfume on a daily basis. (Assuming that perfumes are intended to attract men, it is odd that women should use male glandular secretions.) It is true that Homo sapiens also has glands near the foreskin, but they are usually a source of great worry and misery. Countless patients think they have contracted a venereal disease when they first observe the sebaceous glands on the underside of the head of their penis. In yet an­other category of patients, not used to pulling back the foreskin on a daily basis and washing the glans, abundant sebaceous secretions accumulate beneath the foreskin. These are called smegma, a whitish substance with the consistency of bath soap, which accumulates in the folds of the sex organs. In the view of some scientists smegma is carcinogenic. To put it more delicately, it is soap that does not cleanse. Before a urologist can examine the inside of the bladder, the penis must first be disinfected. This places quite a burden on nursing staff, who have to disinfect up to fifteen penises a day. One nurse in my depart­ment refers to these sebaceous secretions as ‘home-made cheese’.