124 ANATOMIOAL NOTES AND QUERIES. 



the anomalous left A'essel (which arose leftward of the aorta from the 

 ■top of the left common iliac vein) was principally continued as the 

 trans-aortic portion of the left venal vein in front of the aorta trans- 

 versely rightwards to join the right inferior vena cava, directly below 

 the point of origin of the communicating branch joining the inferior 

 vena cava and the right vena azygos. A small branch, however, 

 continued upwards in the line of the left inferior vena cava, which 

 ■was lost in the tissues covering the upper part of the left crus of 

 the diaphragm. (Michaelmas term, 1893.) 



II. Double inferior vena cava resembling the last, the left receiving 

 two large left renal veins and sending a large transverse branch across 

 the aorta to join the right vena cava almost opposite the right renal 

 vein. A small upward continuation of this vein was traceable through 

 the tissues at the root of the left crus of the diaphragm, but its con- 

 tinuity with the left vena azygos was not demonstrated. (May 1897.) 



III. In the specimen with the pelvic kidney, described in the last 

 note, a small ascending vessel, about the size of the ordinary cephalic 

 vein, arose from the left common iliac vein, leftward of the bifurca- 

 tion of the aorta ; it received the last lumbar vein at its origin. As- 

 cending to the point where it received the 3rd lumbar vein, it sent a 

 large branch behind the aorta to join the right vena cava, and a small 

 branch in front of the aorta, whose end was cut, and which may have 

 joined the right inferior vena cava also. The main stem ascended on 

 the left side as high as the upper part of the second lumbar vertebra, 

 where it turned abruptly rightward, crossed the aorta below the origin 

 of the superior mesenteric artery, and joined the right vena cava. This 

 portion of the vesel exactly simulated a diminutive left renal vein. 

 At the point where this turn occurs three vessels join the trunk — 

 one M'hich is a lumbar vein, and two which descend from the tissues 

 covering the left side of the diaphragm, neither of which was con- 

 nected with the left vena azygos. (Jan. 1900.) 



IV. A specimen of a different order was found in the Lent term of 

 1892. In this the right vena cava, normal as far as the level of the 

 under border of the liver, became there suddenly contracted. A very 

 small and scarcely perforate stem pierced the diaphragm and entered 

 the right auricle ; the usual caval opening here appeared as a bag-like, 

 very exaggerated replica of the coronary sinus, into whose fundus the 

 diminutive vena cava opened like a rudimental coronary vein. (The 

 true coronary vein and sinus were normal.) 



The main current of inferior caval blood passed up through the 

 aortic opening in the diaphragm by a large vena azygos, as large as 

 the rest of the superior vena cava into which it opened as usual. The 

 entire channel was uniformly continuous as a complete right cardinal 

 vein. 



The subject was an old female. The thorax had been deformed by 

 extremely tight-lacing, and the liver showed a typical 'tighfc-lace 

 lobe,' but otherwise was not diseased. How far this deformation 

 contributed to cause or to increase the malformation of the veins can 

 only be conjectured in the absence of history. 



