VOL. XIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 115 



much larger than ordinary, the winding of the colon, which passes under the 

 stomach, strongly drawn together by three threads. In the umbilical region 

 the intestines jejunum and ileum, much inflamed, and their tunics thicker than 

 ordinary. In the hypogastric region, all the inferior part of the ileum, on 

 that side near the bladder, and all the bottom of the matrix, as also the lower 

 part of the rectum, much inflamed and ulcerated. In the bottom of the matrix 

 there was an abscess, and the internal orifice extremely dilated, about the size 

 of a crown ; the extremity of the lower part of the ureter was cartilaginous ; 

 the extremity of the tuba fallopiana went so high, as the second vertebra of 

 the lumbar region ; in the interior part it was dilated 6 lines, and near the 

 bottom of the matrix about 1 inches, and it was fastened to all the inferior part 

 of the kidney; that of the left side was dilated about 4 lines m the upper part, 

 and 6 in the lower. 



The right ovarium, which commonly does not exceed the size of a pigeon's 

 egg, was here 3 inches long, and 1 broad ; and in the inferior part, there was 

 found an egg, hanging by its ligament, out of the tuba fallopiana, about the 

 size of the yolk of a common hen's egg ; which, for experiment, was boiled, 

 and it hardened like an ordinary egg. 



The right kidney was of a considerable size, and went up as high as the last 

 of the true ribs, and descended below the umbilical region ; the pelvis was 

 dilated about 3 inches in breadth, and 7 in length. The lungs were of a livid 

 colour, as in all chronic diseases; on the right side they adhered to the pleura; 

 and on the left side was an adhesion of the inferior lobe to the diaphragm : in 

 the pericardium was little or no serum ; and what we found was of a bloody 

 colour: in dissecting the heart, there was a great polypus in the right ven- 

 tricle, taking up almost all the cavity, about 5 or 6 lines in thickness, and half 

 a foot in length. 



Then follow some reflections on the causes of dropsy ; by some attributed 

 (says Dr. Preston.) to affections of the liver, the spleen, &c. And since the 

 discovery of the lymphatics, to a rupture of them ; but upon the dissection of 

 hydropic bodies, these vessels (he observes) are never found broken. The 

 true cause he deduces from the mechanical structure of the parts, and the dis- 

 position of the blood ; which are 1st, the relaxation of the fibres and pores of 

 the vessels, between the arteries and the veins, or '2dly, a compression of the 

 vessels ; for the lymphatics take their origin from the membranes, which cover 

 the muscles, viscera, and glands; therefore, when the vesicula3 are too much 

 straitened with serosity, their fibres lose their natural force, and become inca- 

 pable of expelling the too great quantity of water ; but the vesiculae are enlarged 

 from day to day, until their fibres suffer so great an extension even as to break, 



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