Charles-Sedgwick Minot 361 



origin and adult state of the ductus venosus. Fourth, the entrance and 

 exit of the vena cava inferior. In this connection there should be made 

 clear the role of the caval mesentery in furnishing a path for the cava 

 inferior, and at the same time shutting off the lesser peritoneal space, 

 and keeping the surface of the Spigelian lobe as part of the boundary of 

 this space. 



Next, again, might be presented the secondary features, especially the 

 marking off of the caudate lobe from the chief right lobe by the vena 

 cava inferior, and the marking off, similarly, of the quadrate lobe b}' the 

 porta and the gall bladder. 



Finally, according to this schedule, the description of the finer surface 

 modelling and the contact with various adjacent organs, such as the stom- 

 ach, colon, duodenum and kidney. Not one of these topographical re- 

 lations is indispensable for a comprehension of the general character of 

 the organ. Even from the standpoint of the surgeon and physician they 

 are of minor importance. If they are put, as has been customary, in 

 the forefront of text-book descriptions, attention is distracted from more 

 essential things. Surely one need not argue to prove that a general 

 comprehension of each organ is, first and last, the most important goal, 

 to be striven for in the study of it. 



In regard to almost every organ in the body it may be said, I think 

 without injustice, that the current anatomical text-books offer bare and 

 barren form-descriptions, seldom giving much, and often giving no, con- 

 sideration to the essential morphological features of the parts. Take, for 

 example, the urogenital system. We all know that the internal female 

 genitalia are formed of two urogenital ridges, which fuse in the median 

 line, making the so-called genital cord. There is in each ridge a longi- 

 tudinal epithelial duct, which becomes the Fallopian tube, and by fusing 

 with its fellow in the genital cord, produces the cavity of the uterus and 

 vagina. A projection on one side of each ridge forms the ovary. Where 

 the ridges have not united, rudiments of the Wolffian body of the embryo 

 occur. The surface of the ridges, both where they are separate and where 

 they are united, is covered by mesothelium. Around the duct (Fallopian 

 tube), there is developed a muscular layer, and around the uterine portion 

 of the fused ducts in the female a very powerful musculature is developed. 

 By the union of the two ridges a partition is formed across the pelvic 

 end of the abdomen, so that the abdominal cavity forms a pocket on the 

 dorsal, and another on the ventral, side of the genitalia. Now the 

 anatomical way of describing these organs is not to mention the ridges 

 at all, but in the case of the female to speak of the uterus and its liga- 



