/ Instances of Monstrous Productions. 407 



suspended in front of the shepherd's house for at least three 

 weeks before I became possessed of it, and consequently so 

 far advanced in putrescence as to render minute dissection 

 out of the question. 



Upon opening the chest, I found two hearts ; the one in the 

 left cavity (your general readers must observe that the chest 

 is divided into the two cavities by a partition called the me- 

 diastinum, passing from the breast-bone to the spine) of the 

 chest was of the natural size and construction, having two 

 auricles and two ventricles, commonly called a double heart, 

 in contradistinction to the heart of fishes, which possesses but 

 one auricle and ventricle, and is therefore denominated a single 

 heart. The other heart, situated in the right cavity of the 

 chest, was remarkably small, and upon examination proved 

 to possess but one auricle and one ventricle, and consequently 

 may be termed a single heart. The left or natural heart 

 gave off from its right ventricle the pulmonary artery, which 

 was distributed to the left lobe of the lungs only ; the pul- 

 monary veins returning to the left auricle. The aorta, arising 

 from the left ventricle, gave off from its arch four arteries, 

 viz., the right subclavian, the right carotid, the left carotid, 

 and the left subclavian : the right subclavian, usually sup- 

 plying the right fore extremity, was in this instance distri- 

 buted to the muscles, &c., situated between the junction of 

 the two necks ; the right carotid passed up the right side of 

 the left neck to its head ; the left carotid to the left side of 

 the same neck and head \ and the left subclavian to the left 

 fore extremity. From the aorta, and posterior to its arch, 

 arose a large artery, which, crossing the spine, passed behind 

 the right heart, and united itself to the subclavian belonging 

 to that heart ; from this large communicating branch arose 

 an artery that passed towards the junction of the two necks, 

 and divided into two vertebral arteries (usually arising from 

 the subclavians), one passing along the left side of the cervi- 

 cal vertebrae of the right neck, and the other in a similar 

 situation on the right side of the left neck. The remaining 

 two vertebral arteries were supplied to the left neck by the 

 left subclavian artery, and to the right neck by the subclavian 

 belonging to the small heart. 



The aorta of the right heart gave off the right subclavian 

 artery, which supplied the right anterior extremity of the 

 animal, after having become united with the large branch 

 from the left aorta. The aorta then gave off a single branch 

 that soon divided into the right and left carotid arteries of 

 the right neck and head ; it then passed towards the right 

 lobes of the lungs, ramified through them, and performed 



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