VOL. XXV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 3il 



M. Marchetti proceeds to notice that the os sacrum is composed sometimes of 

 6 bones, but commonly of 5. When it is composed of 6, the os coccygis has 

 only 3 bones ; but when the os sacrum consists of 5 bones, the os coccygis has 

 4. In cases of difficult parturition, by introducing the finger up the rectum 

 and pressing back, the os coccygis, he says the exclusion of the foetus may be 

 expedited — The spleen in this subject was praeternaturally enlarged, which he 

 attributed to an intemperate mode of living. — The colon adhered to the peri- 

 tonaeum. — Respecting the liver he remarks, that in the living and healthy sub- 

 ject it does not extend over the stomach, and therefore that liniments, fomen- 

 tations, &c. are (in certain cases) properly applied to the region of the stomach. 

 He asserts from his own observation, that the iliac passion or volvulus is oc- 

 casioned by an inflammation of the valve seated in the beginning of the colon, 

 whereby the descent of the faeces is prevented. He had seen the passage so 

 constricted, as not to be capable of admitting even the point of a pin (ne cus- 

 pidem aciculae potuerit admittere) — In the fundus of the gall-bladder no vessels 

 can be traced which convey bile into it ; but only certain porosities which trans- 

 Iflit that fluid ; hence when the gall-bladder is separated from the liver, there is 

 a manifest oozing out of the bile. From the parenchymatous part of the liver 

 certain capillary veins are distributed over the membranes of the gall-bladder, 

 so that this last cannnot be detached from the liver without some effusion of 

 blood. — In the part where the gall-bladder is joined to the liver, it is composed 

 of a single membrane only ; but in the other part of two membranes. — The 

 meatus cysticus, where it terminates in the ductus communis, is not furnished 

 with a valve, but merely with an ostiolum, which prevents the regurgitation (re- 

 fiuxum) of the bile. — He asserts that when the meatus cysticus is obstructed, 

 the yellow jaundice takes place ; when the porus choledochus is obstructed, the 

 black jaundice follows. That the branches of the vena portae and vena cava are 

 not united in the liver by inosculations, but per harmoniam aut incumbeutiam 

 mutuam vasorum. That the vena portae does not acquire a new membrane or 

 tunic within the parenchyma of the liver. That he had seen lacteal veins in- 

 serted into the trunk of the vena portae. That he never could find, nor be- 

 lieves that there exists, a common receptacle of the chyle.* That he had 

 seen a considerable branch of the ductus chyliferus terminating in the pancreas. 

 That he supposes it to be the office of the spleen to separate black bile from the 

 blood ; and to transmit it by the ramus splenicus, together with the blood, to the 

 liver, where it (the black bile) is discharged into the intestines by the meatus 

 choledochus. That the lacteal veins absorb the chyle from the intestines, and 



• Here Mr. Ray remarks, that his experience proves the contrary. 



