NOTE ON THE CONFIGUEATION OF THE HEAKT IN 

 MAN AND SOME OTHEK MAMMALIAN GEOUPS.^ 

 By Charles J. Patten, B.A., M.D., B.Ch., &c., Chief 

 Demonstrator in Anatomy, Trinity College, Duhliyi ; Fellow 

 of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland. (Plates 

 IV.-VI.) 



Many of the mammalian hearts which I have examined were 

 first hardened in situ with strong sohitions of formalin injected 

 through the femoral artery. I found that the human heart 

 differed considerably in shape from those of the following 

 lower animals which I dissected :— 



(A) Order Marsupialia — Macropus robustus. 



(B) Order Rodentia — 1. Lagostomus trichodaetylus. 2. Sciurus 



vulgaris. 3. M'us decumanus. 



(C) Order Carnivora — 1, Felis co7icolor. 2. Felis domestica. 



(D) Order Primates — (a) Catarrhine apes. 1. Macacus 



innuiis. 2. Gynoce/phalus babuin. 

 (b) Anthropomorphous apes. Hylo- 

 bates hainanus. 



A certain amount of difference could be made out in the 

 general configuration of the hearts of the above-mentioned 

 groups. 



In Felis the ventricles are rather long and pointed. In 

 Sciurus, Mus, and Lagostomus, they are shorter, with a more 

 obtuse apex. However (excepting the primates), these hearts 

 possessed the following characters : — 



1. Conical in shape. 



2. Position in the thoracic cavity almost parallel with the 

 mesial plane. 



3. The margo acutus, according to position, is a right border. 



4. Only a small part of the posterior surface (facies diaphrag- 

 matica) of the ventricles rests on the diaphragm (the pericardium 



' Read before the Section of Anatomy and Physiology of the Royal Academy of 

 Medicine in Ireland, June 1, 1900, and before the Anatomical Society of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, at Manchester, June 22, 1900. 



