Os penis of the rat. II. Morphology of the mature bone.

A morphological description of the mature os penis and its related structures in the rat is presented. The description aims at being a natural introduction to studies of histomorphological and histochemical events during the development of the bone. The causal interest of this topic is due to a recently published observation of a rare reaction for presence of alkaline phosphatase in the proximally positioned growth cartilage of os penis. The study, thus, presents a systematical description of the position of os penis in relation to the soft tissue structures of glans penis, of gross morphology of the bone, of its periosteal covering and of the distribution of the bone types, which together form the mature bone. The observations result in an introduction of a systematical terminology, based on the Latin language. Furthermore, certain phenomena concerning a distally positioned cartilagenous process, and the distribution of bone tissue types in os penis are observed and discussed. Together with the phenomenon earlier mentioned these phenomena need further attention in future studies of the bone.