ABSENCE OF THE INFERIOR CAVA BELOW THE DIAPHRAGM. 19 



There are several cases of obliteration of the inferior cava. 

 A particularly interesting one is that of Osier. ^ A cut vein 

 from the left renal was in all probability an enlarged hemi- 

 azygos. I cannot doubt that there was a congenital narrowness 

 of the cava, supposing it ever to have been pervious. Even if 

 we admit that, in all the cases of obliteration, the vein was once 

 pervious, it seems very reasonable to believe that there was at 

 least some approach to the condition recorded in this paper. 



I have to thank my colleagues Dr Minot and Dr Dexter for 

 having put at my service many series of sections through young 

 embryos of the pig, raljbit, and cat. 



Notes on the Figures. 



A large part of the diaphragm was stitched to a bent wire with its 

 ends fastened in the vertebral column. A. window was cut in the 

 diaphragm under the heart (fig. 1) to show the inferior cava above the 

 diaphragm. It is seen also in fig. 3. The right ascending lumbar 

 vein is hidden in fig. 1 by the column, and its lower part in fig. 3 by 

 the ilium. The upper right intercostal veins shown in fig. 3 open into 

 a vessel behind the azygos. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



{* 1) Abbrnethy, Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. London, part i., 1793. 



(2) BujALSKY, A monograph in Russian, 1829, mentioned by 

 Krause in HenWs Anatomy. 



(* 3) Carpbntier et Bertaux, Arch, de Physiol, norm, et path., 

 1888, p. 79. 



(*4) Cruveilhier, Trait'' d' Anatomie Descriptive, tome iii., 

 quatrieme edition, page 223. 



(5) DoRSCH, Bayer. Aerz. IntelligenzUatf, 1858, No. 20. The best 

 abstract I have seen is in Oanstaft's Jahreshericht. 



(6) GuRLT, De venarum deformitatlbus, Dissertation, Vratislavae, 

 1819. See Quain, Anatomy of the Arteries^. A copy of Gurlt's 

 figure is given, but is said to be not quite complete, 



1 This Journnl, vol. xiii. 



*The papers marked with a star were consulted in the original. 



