e suggest the question whether the penis
becomes larger by exercise of its generative functions. Most old
authors assert that frequent erection makes the penis large and
long (Schurig, _Spermatologia_, p. 107). Galen noted that in
singers and athletes, who were chaste in order to preserve their
strength, the sexual parts were small and rugrose, like those of
old men, and that exercise of the organs from youth develops
them; Roubaud, quoting this observation (_Traite de
l'Impuissance_, p. 373), agrees with the statement. It seems
probable that there is an element of truth in this ancient
belief. At the same time it must be remembered that the penis is
only to small extent a muscular organ, and that the increase of
size produced by frequent congestion of erectile tissues cannot
be either rapid or pronounced. Variations in the size of the
sexual organs are probably on the whole mainly inherited, though
it is impossible to speak decisively on this point until more
systematic observations become customary.

The scrotum has usually, in the human imagination, been regarded merely as
an appendage of the penis, of secondary importance, although it is the
garment of the primary and essential organs of sex, and the fact that it
is not the seat of any voluptuous sensation has doubtless helped to
confirm this position. Even the name is merely a mediaeval perversion of
_scortum_, skin or hide. In classic times it was usually called the pouch
or purse. The importance of the testicles has not, however, been
altogether ignored, as the very word _testis_ itself shows, for the
_testis_ is simply the _witness_ of virility.[78]

It is easy to understand why the penis should occupy this special place in
man's thoughts as the supreme sexual organ. It is the one conspicuous and
prominent portion of the sexual apparatus, while its aptitude for swelling
and erecting itself involuntarily, under the influence of sexual emotion,
gives it a peculiar and almost unique position in the body. At the same
time it is the point at which, in the male body, all voluptuous sensation
is concentrated, the only normal masculine center of sex.[79]

It is not easy to find any correspondingly conspicuous symbol of sex in
the sexual region of women. In the normal position nothing is visible but
the peculiarly human cushion of fat picturesquely termed the Mons Veneris
(because, as Palfyn said, all thos