444 Helen Williston Smith. 



The names chiefly associated with this work are those of Robin, 

 Baumgarten, Wertheiraer, Sappey, Burow, Pfeifer, His, and recently 

 Joris. 



I have not seen Robin's papers, but he is quoted by most of the 

 other authors, generally with more or less indignant sorrow because 

 of the incorrectness of his views, namely, that the umbilical vein 

 never receives vessels from the abdominal wall in the fdtus, and is 

 completely obliterated after birth. 



Baumgarten, on the other hand, according to Pfeifer and Joris, 

 admits the existence of collateral veins in the adult, describes their 

 arrangement as constant and normal and says that the part of the 

 umbilical vein remaining patent is connected with the deep epigastric 

 veins. 



Wertheimer comes to the conclusion, from injections of thirteen 

 foetuses and young infants in the hepatic extremity of the um- 

 bilical vein, that ordinarily the umbilical vein becomes absolutely 

 occluded. However, there is a venule of later formation running in 

 the obliterated cord in the adul't, and he admits that cases may 

 exist in which the umbilical vein remains oj^en permanently. This 

 possibility he explains by reference to comparative anatomy, for in 

 amphibians the umbilical vein persists as the anterior abdominal 

 vein. 



Sappey is somewhat more positive than Wertheimer in stating 

 that the umbilical vein is absolutely occluded in the adult, but he 

 says accessory veins exist, which he divides into a superior and an 

 inferior group. 



"Le gi-oupe superieur est constitue par des veinules que descendent 

 de la partie mediane du diaphragme vers la face convexe du foie 

 et qui viennent se distribuer sur les lobules auxquels adhere le liga- 

 ment suspenseur. Par une de leurs extremites, ces veinules com- 

 muniquent avec les veines diaphraginati(]ues, et par 1' autre avec les 

 divisions sus-lobulaires de la veine porte. 



"Le groupe inferieur comprend toute une serie de veinules qui 

 se portent de la partie sus-ombilicale de la parol abdominale ante- 

 rieure vers le sillon longitudinal du foie. Ces dernieres, comprises 

 dans la partie du ligament suspenseur qui renferme le cordon de la 



