506 British Association for the Advancement of Science, 



On the Entozoa which are occasionally found in the Muscles of the 

 Human Subject. By Professor Harrison. 



The Professor exhibited preparations and drawings of a speckled 

 appearance not unfrequently met with in different parts of the mus- 

 cular system, and detailed the particulars of several cases in which 

 it had existed : he expressed his full concurrence with the opinions 

 advanced by Mr. Owen, in the Transactions of the Zoological Society 

 of London*, as to the animal or vital character of the bodies to which 

 the appearance is owing. He next remarked some interesting 

 coincidences in the cases he had examined : thus, in one instance, 

 where the muscles were very generally affected, he found a large 

 cyst in the liver which contained several hydatids. These were 

 exhibited to the meeting. In all the other cases there were marks 

 of scrofulous disease having existed, either recently or at some 

 remote period : thus, in three cases the lungs were a mass of tu- 

 bercular matter, and in another there was caries of the lumbar 

 vertebrae and scrofulous suppuration in the adjacent structures. 

 The Professor further stated, that in all the cases he had examined, 

 this appearance was almost confined to the voluntary muscles : he 

 had never met with it in the heart or intestinal tunics, but had found 

 it about the circumference only of the diaphragm, and in the other 

 mixed muscles to a much less degree than in the voluntary : these 

 bodies he stated to be more numerous on the cutaneous than on the 

 deep surfaces of muscles, and to be deposited in the interfascicular 

 cellular tissue, rather than in the fasciculi themselves. 



On the Bones which are found in the Hearts of certain Ruminant 

 Animals. By Professor Harrison. 



The author first compared the circulating organs in fish, reptiles, 

 birds, and mammalia. He next adverted to the opinions of Mor- 

 gagni, Haller, Daubenton, Meckel, and Carus as to the singular 

 osseous appendages which the hearts of some of the ruminants pos- 

 sess, as also of some other animals allied to them. He exhibited 

 several specimens of these bones, some dried, some in their recent 

 state, and others in situ, in different animals. The heart of the ox 

 presents them in greatest perfection ; here there are always at least 

 two, and sometimes several smaller osseous and cartilaginous grains: 

 the two principal bones are, one very large, placed posteriorly in 

 the septum auricularum ; the other, smaller, is situated in front. The 

 large one is of the figure of the human malar bone; its upper concave 

 border forms the floor to the posterior aortic sinus ; its inferior be- 

 velled edge gives attachment to the large portion of the mitral valve ; 

 to the body of the bone the fleshy and tendinous fibres of the auricles 

 are attached. The small or anterior bone is triangular ; its concave 

 base floors the anterior aortic sinus. These bones are always to be 

 found in both sexes, and in the young as well as in the old. Speci- 

 mens were presented from animals only a few weeks old, in which 



* An abstract of Mr. Owen's paper on the Trichina, here referred to, was 

 given in our last volume (vi.), p. 452. — Edit. 



