An inaugural dissertation on the congenital malformations of the heart ... / [John Paget].

  • Paget, John, 1808-1892.
Date:
[1831]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural dissertation on the congenital malformations of the heart ... / [John Paget]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    nisi quod singula duplex habeant cavurn, et ex singulis aorta emergat, et ligamentum inter utrumque intercedat valde obscu- rum, cum casu tantum in ansere jam cocto inter mensam fue- rint inventa.” Duplicity of some part of the heart only, is an occurrence of great rarity. Andral * in his Anatomie Pathologique, says “ I have seen a heart with three auricles, and another with four ventricles,but does not give any more detailed de¬ scription of them. One instance is mentioned by Kerkring, j- in which there was a double state of the right ventricle, with two pulmonary arteries ; and a second by Chemineau J showing three ventricles united together, the right receiving the vena cava, the left the pulmonary veins, while the middle one gave off the aorta and pulmonary artery. These are the very few cases of this kind of malformation we have been able to col¬ lect, and the last even of these is more than doubtful. It is probably only a case of two auricles with a single ventricle ; for Chemineau does not mention the state of the former, besides that he compares it to the heart of the tortoise, to which it would then be nearly allied. Malformations of Position. «/ */ As we advance with our subject the difficulties of explanation, if possible, increase,—so innumerable are the varieties we meet with,—so imperfect our knowledge of anormal developement. Before the division of malformations on which we are now enter¬ ing can be treated with any great success, it is necessary that we should possess a more accurate knowledge than has yet been obtained, of the relative situations occupied by different organs during the different periods of foetal life. It is well known, that almost every organ does undergo considerable changes in this respect;—the descent of the testis furnishes a familiar example ; and it would appear, that, as with respect to form and number, in position also, the changes increase as the animal rises in the scale of creation. The movement of the spinal marrow, has been noticed by Tiedemann and Serres ; and that of the heart, is not less worthy of accurate investigation. We know that the * Andral’s Pathol, Anat. translated by Townsend and West, Vol. ii. p. 333. ■j* Kerkringii Spicileg. Anat. Obs. G9, Tab. xxii. $ Memoires de l’Acad. des Sciences, 1699, p. 42.