Il6 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ ANNO 1084-5 . 



An Extract from the Journal of the Philosophical Society of Oxford; giving an 

 Account of a large preternatural glandulous Substance, found between the 

 Heart and Pericardium of an Ox. N° 167, p. 860. 



That lump of flesh taken out of an ox, and seen by this society, afforded 

 the following observations: The weight of the whole substance, cleared from 

 the little fat, &c. adjoining to it, amounted to IQilb. 



As to its figure, it so far resembled a heart, that it was a long time taken 

 for nothing else ; but it was something flatter than the heart is naturally, each 

 of the flat sides making an equilateral triangle. The basis of this cone of 

 flesh was 2 feet 7 inches in circumference; a thread drawn round it lengthwise, 

 from the basis of the vertex, came to 2 feet 9 inches. 



We then divided it, cutting from the vertex to the basis of the cone, and 

 passing through both the ventricles, and mucro of the heart, by which means 

 we saw the heart not to exceed the natural size; that which was extraordinary 

 about it being a large glandulous substance encompassing the heart, unless 

 where the vessels had their passage, and stretching the pericardium to the ex- 

 cess before mentioned; we saw no liquor in the pericardium, nor indeed was 

 there room for any ; this glandulous substance taking up all the space between 

 the heart and pericardium, to both which it grew very fast. 



This preternatural substance was thickest about the basis of the heart, where 

 it covered the auriculae, and was 3^- inches thick, it grew thinner on both 

 sides gradually toward the mucro, where it was 14- inch thick. In the septum 

 cordis a gritty sabulous substance was found, half as large again as a walnut. 

 In the lungs were several cystides, containing matter more or less fluid : one 

 very large cystis held some ounces of a matter- not unlike that of a steatoma. 



The butcher who killed this ox, says, the lungs grew fast to the pleura, on 

 both sides, which he affirms not to have found once in 40 times in the cattle 

 killed by him. He says also, that the ox, though not overburthened with fat, 

 complained much in travelling, which is easy to account for, there being not 

 room for the heart to be distended, as it ought, in its diastole. 



Nov. 4, 1 684. 



De Origine Fontium, Tentamen Philosophicum, in Prcelectione habita coram Soc. 

 Philos. nuper Oxon. instit. ad Scientiam Naturalem promovendam. Per Rob. 

 Plot, LL. D. Custodi^e Mm<ei Ashmoleani Oxonice pnepositum, et Reg. Soc. 

 Sec. Oxon. 8vo. l685. N° 167, p. 862. 



The author of this treatise, de Origine Fontium, disliking the old way of 

 handling this subject, as too general and remote, has chosen rather to argue 



