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THE FEEQUENCY OF AN OPENING BETWEEN THE 

 EIGHT AND LEFT AUETCLES AT THE SEAT OF 

 THE F(ETAL FOEAMEN OVALE. By Prof. E. Fawcett, 

 Univ. Coll., Bristol, and Dr J. V. Blackford, City and 

 County Asylum, Bristol. 



This is an investigation commenced two years before the sul)ject 

 was taken up by the Anatomical Society. As the report of that 

 Society was issued long before our investigation could lead us 

 to any conclusion worth recording, we have used that report as 

 a convenient standard for comparison ; and as that report deals 

 with 399 cases, and we have dealt with 306 cases, we are, by 

 combining the two, able to present conclusions based on examina- 

 tions of 705 hearts. 



We ourselves have not examined any hearts of which the age 

 was under ten years, as all the examinations were made in the 

 post-mortem room of the Bristol Asylum. In all, we examined 

 306 hearts, 173 of which were from males and 133 were from 

 females. We found that out of 306 specimens there was a patent 

 foramen ovale in 96 (31-37 per cent.). In 173 male hearts there 

 was a foramen in 51 (29-47 per cent.). In 133 females the 

 foramen was met with 45 times (33-83 per cent.). Giving these 

 figures in table we get — 



Table I. — Freqicency of Patent Foramen Ovale. 



1. In all cases (306) 96 = 31-37 per cent. 



2. In males (173) 51 = 29-47 



3. In females (133) 45 = 3383* 



One might conclude that patency was more common in females 

 than males from this table, and as a matter of fact that con- 

 clusion is drawn in the Anatomical Society's report. We leave 

 that an open question, as in both cases the number of females 

 examined is less than that of males, and our experience is that 

 accurate conclusions can only be drawn when the numbers 

 coincide. 



