Changes

Although the sensory and autonomic innervation ofthe penis and clitoris are similar, there is a remarkabledifference in their encapsulated somatosensory receptors.Sensory receptors can be classified as mechanoreceptors,e.g. Meissner’s corpuscles, Vater-Pacinian cor-puscles (Fig. 5) corpuscles and Merkel cells (Fig. 6); and nocioceptors(free nerve endings). A multitude of names havebeen used to describe these encapsulated receptors, e.g.Krause, Dogiel, genital corpuscles, Endkalpsen and muco-cutaneous end-organs, but the term corpuscular (encapsulated) receptors will be used here to include allof these mechanoreceptors. Most of the encapsulatedreceptors of the prepuce are Meissner corpuscles, as theycontact the epithelial basement membrane.<ref name="cold-taylor1999">{{REFjournal