42 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1 683-4. 



throughout like a bag of sand with a yellow gritty substance ; the gall-bladder 

 was furnished with the like, but of a darker hue. The spleen was very large, 

 and of too soft and loose a texture, but not much discoloured. The omentum 

 rotten and wasted. The membrane of the stomach very flaccid and thin, ap- 

 pearing black and mortified, and upon taking it out within 24 hours after death, 

 though tied close at both ends, sent forth such an intolerable sour rancid scent, 

 that the strongest double aquafortis, to which it might best be compared, could 

 not prove so troublesome and offensive to the smell. The lungs were distended 

 to the uttermost with a purulent froth. The heart much stretched beyond its 

 natural magnitude, and of a very flat figure; the veins of the whole body were of 

 an unusual and extraordinary size, especially the internal jugulars were strained 

 to above ^ of an inch diameter; polypous concretions also were found in the 

 larger veins of the arms, legs, and other parts; but what most engaged our at- 

 tention and wonder, was that which is represented by fig. 4, pi. 1, found in the 

 right ventricle of the heart, and towards its apex or tip firmly radicated, so that 

 no small stress was required for the separation. The part by which it was fixed 

 was nearly an inch and half in diameter when fresh taken out, irregularly rough 

 at the bottom, insinuating many roots into the lacunae or little cavities of the 

 ventricle, which again by less fibres were fastened to the inner membrane of the 

 heart. The great branch B, which ran out into the right auricle, was nearly 2 

 inches diameter at the largest extreme, and reached no farther than the inser- 

 tion of the vena cava. As for those branches marked G, G, tending to the 

 arms, how far they grew I cannot assert, not knowing whether they were broken 

 off or not; but the branches H, H, H, H, &c. tending toward the head, could 

 not be drawn out without some force, and it is very likely they were broken off^ 

 at the diverticula or two round sinuses where the jugulars enter the skull; for 

 the like concretions were found in the vessels of the brain, to which probably 

 these might be adjoined. The substance of the whole was plainly fibrous, re- 

 sembling a nerve, and tough while moist, though upon drying brittle, the 

 colour white, and was clothed with a thin coat including, in that part which 

 filled the right jugular vein, two little black specks (h, h) of blood, as we sup- 

 pose, a long while there coagulated. As for other circumstances of the shape, 

 extent, and size of the polypus, the reader may recur to the engraven figure 

 drawn rather less than half the dimensions of the thing itself.* 



• In the concluding part of this paper the author endeavours to refiite the opinion maintained by 

 Kerkingius, (and others) that polypous concretions, such as those here described, never exist during 

 life, but are produced by coagulation immediately after death. Remarks are offered on the causes 

 and symptoms of polypi, extracted from various writers j in which there is nothing that claims par- 

 ticular notice. 



