VOL. XXIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SIQ 



valve; hhh some of the transverse tendons, which draw the carneae columnae 

 to each other, when the heart is in systole, for the more effectual closing the 

 orifice of the mitral valve, expressed here at g. 



Fig. 14 and 15 show the same parts represented in the two preceding figures, 

 as they appear viewed towards the heart, when dried and displayed; aa the trunk 

 of the aorta; aaa, fig. 14, the semilunar valves in a natural state, when the 

 blood in the arteries presses them close to each other ; bbbb the trunks of the 

 two coronary arteries cut off; aa, fig. 15, the semilunar valves petrified; c the 

 orifice of the mitral valve next the vena pulmonalis; ddd the internal surface 

 of the mitral valve leading into the left ventricle ; eee the columnas carneae 

 ff their tendons; gg the transverse tendons, which draw the fleshy columns 

 to each other, when the heart is in systole. 



Account of a dropsical Body dissected. By Mr. John Lafage. N° 299, P- 1977» 

 A maiden lady 52 years of age, complained, about 6 weeks before Mr. L. 

 saw her, of a circumscribed hard swelling on the right hypograstic region ; 

 from that time her belly grew by degrees to an exorbitant size, and at last suf- 

 focated the lady. The body was greatly emaciated, and the legs swelled a few 

 days before her death. 



I expected water, but there was only a viscous darkish humour, to the quan- 

 tity of 18 gallons; after the evacuation of that matter, I was no less surprised 

 to perceive a large heap of vesicles arising from a thick membrane covering the 

 guts, it being the peritonaeum separated from the muscles: I took it out, to 

 examine the better those vesicular bodies* disposed on the outer surface of that 

 membrane, as also those on its inside, towards the guts. The vesicles were 

 of difl^erent magnitudes; some of the largest had been broken and sunk, others 

 were broken and almost empty, and the others very much distended and full ; 

 the matter of all of them was of the same nature with the extra vasated humours. 

 What was contained in the lesser ones proved to be of a diflferent colour and 

 consistence, not unlike gelly, white of eggs, gall, and honey ; in some it was 

 much like the humour of a true meliceris. There was but little matter extra- 

 vasated in the cavity of the abdomen ; most part was contained between the 

 peritonaeum and the muscles. The right kidney was affected with a particular 

 dropsy ; all the viscera besides were in a natural state ; 2 polypuses were found 

 in the heart, and 2 pretty large stones in the gall bladder. 



* Hydatides. 



F F 2 



