XI. On the Formation of Bone in the Human Penis

Annals of Surgery
June 1913 - Volume 57 - Issue 6 - ppg 896-901

Arpad G. Gerster, M.D.,
Surgeon to the Mount Sinai Hospital
and
F. S. Mandlebaum, M.D.,
of New York
Pathologist to the Mt. Sinai Hospital

   The fact that the formation of bone in the human penis is one of the rarest of phenomena may serve as an excuse for presenting a paper based on the observation of a single case.

   CASE REPORT.-John B., male, Frenchman, restaurant keeper, 49 years old, married. There was a history of syphilis, no gonorrhoea, no acute infectious disease. Patient had worn a pair of corsets of the straight front type for three years. About eight months ago he noticed at the place where, in the sitting posture, the lower anterior rim of the corsets impinged on the upper aspect of the root of the penis, the appearance of a small indurated mass the size of a pea. Gradually this mass extended downward along the middle of the dorsum of the organ, until it reached its present size. The presence of this body caused the patient no inconvenience whatever, except in erection of the penis, when an increasing amount of upward incurvation acted as an insurmountable obstacle to the introduction of the organ into the female genital tract. On October 3, 1910, the following was noted:

   Status Prasens.-Florid, somewhat obese man. Pulse 80, temperature normal. Arteries somewhat hard. Lungs and heart normal. Abdomen obese and pendulous. Liver palpable, not painful; spleen non-palpable. Genitals well developed. Close to where the penis emerges from underneath the symphysis pubis, an oblong, lamella shaped, very hard body can be felt resting upon the dorsum, extending forward to the extent of 3.5 cm. It's width is 1.75 cm. It occupies the middle space exactly. The thickness is estimated to be about two or three millimetres. There is considerable subcutaneous lateral mobility which easily permits a tilting on edge from either side, the tilted body then assuming the shape of a longitudinal crest. No longitudinal mobility. The Wassermann test proved to be negative. Urination unimpeded. Urine of high specific gravity (1018-1022), clear, dark amber, acid; no albumin, no sugar, no blood, pus, or casts.

   October 15, under light gas and ether anaesthesia extirpation of the body. Artificial anaemia by constriction of root of penis. Longitudinal median incision down upon the body, severing the penile fascia. Very easy dissection of the lateral margins; the inferior attachments of the osseous body to the tunica albuginea and to the septum penis demanded cutting. After the removal of the body a defect of the tunica extending over both corpora cavernosa was visible. Catgut suture of tunica albuginea, release of the constrictor, ligature of two small arteries, suture of the fascia and skin, together with a small compressive dressing completed the little operation. Uneventful primary healing followed.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1407570/

This boner paper is over a hundred years old. All copyrights have expired.

Swallows and Bed-Bugs

The Condor
Vol. 15, No. 1, Jan. - Feb., 1913, pp. 14-16
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Cooper Ornithological Society
Jan., 1913
DOI: 10.2307/1361865

Edward R. Warren

In my paper in the May-June CONDOR, 1912, entitled "Some North-cen-tral Colorado Bird Notes," I referred to the belief that swallows harbor bed-bugs as ridiculous; and now I have to confess that possibly I did not know as much as I thought I did, a not uncommon failing with us all. Some time after the paper was published, W. Leon Dawson in a very courteous letter, called my attention to the fact that he had found Cliff Swallows' nests badly in-fested with bed-bugs, in one case so much so that the colony had been deserted.
He reported this in "The Birds of Washington," page 333. This started me to looking into the matter, something I had not done before, and as it would seem that not very many are posted on the subject, and in fact but little definite has been published that I have been able to find, I have thought it worth while to write up what little I have been able to learn about the matter, together with a few observations of my own, in the hope that it may be the means of bringing out further information. Certainly ornithologists should do their part in ascertain-ing whether or not swallows are guilty of bringing such disagreeable pests into human habitations.

I found that a bug (Acanthia hirundinis), belonging to the same genus as the true bed-bug (Acanthia lectularia), is parasitic on swallows, pigeons, chickens, and bats. It should perhaps be stated that the French authority, L. Gedoelst, places it in another genus because of certain structural differences, calling it Oeciacus hirundinis. On writing Dr. L. O. Howard, Chief of the Bureau of Entomology, Department of Agriculture, for information, he gave me a reference to a record by Otto Lugger, State Entomologist of Minnesota, and published in the Sixth Annual Report of the Entomologist of the State Ex-periment Station of the University of Minnesota, 1900, page 52.
This is as follows:

"Bugs, very similar to bed bugs, attack pigeons, chickens, swallows and bats. Those found in the nests of swallows not infrequently reach the inside of houses against which these beneficial birds have built their clay nests. Such bugs very closely resemble the genuine bed-bugs, yet are different when studied in detail; they are much smaller, darker, and cannot exist for any length of time away from their proper home, the nest of the swallow, where they are sometimes ex-ceedingly numerous.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1361865