VOL. XXVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 5/1 



It did not adhere to the ribs, as in Dr. Moulins' subject ; but lay flaccid on the 

 one side of the heart, as the other had done, before it was mangled, on the 

 other side; so that I suppose this adhesion of Dr. Moulins' to have been in a 

 morbid state. When I saw I could not extract the viscera thoracis whole, I 

 traced one of the branches of the aorta ascendens down to the heart; and was 

 surprised, when I cut it above, to see a fat-like substance jet out of it ; and 

 pulling it, I got upwards of 2 feet in length of a polypus adapted to the capacity 

 of the artery, which was about 2^- inches diameter. This polypus was uo wise 

 fibrous, but as it were so much fat moulded after such a manner, being not 

 unlike the blade of a broad sword, near -^ of an inch at the middle, and much 

 thinner at the edges, tough and flexible, with some grumous blood not so 

 firmly compacted at the extremity. 



About the heart all the vessels were very large; the bivium aorta very consi- 

 derably thick and strong ; the size proportionable to the body. The auricles 

 were large, and the left as well as the right full of grumous blood. At the 

 opening of the ventricles, I found them both filled with the same polypus ; 

 which strangely twisted itself in among the valves, both tricuspides and semi- 

 lunares, and also among the fleshy columns at the bottom of each ventricle ; 

 which here seemed to be so many little strong round muscles, some 4-, others 4., 

 and others near one inch long, with a round fleshy belly, and two tendons 

 variously situated, as in the hearts of other animals. These polypuses, from a 

 massy substance in the middle of the ventricle, sent forth to all parts their 

 branches, which here and there twisted themselves round these fleshy columns, 

 their tendinous insertions, and the tendinous fibres of the valves, with a sur- 

 prising intricacy: in short, there was no angle, no corner or cavity, which the 

 polypus did not occupy ; and yet so much was it disengaged from the substance 

 of the heart, and it was so strong and tough, that by pulling its grosser part 

 in the middle, all the other branches moved; and by cutting a few parts of it, 

 where it was most engaged, and where the fleshy columns were thickest, I got 

 it out altogether; and having stretched it out, I pleasantly beheld these rami- 

 fications, proceeding from its grosser part, like so many thongs or laces into 

 which a piece of leather had been cut, some broad and some narrower; but 

 none very* thick ; of a yellow colour, and fat substance ; each of them weigh- 

 ing lib. which I may safely say, was more fat than was upon all the body 

 beside. 



The mouth is very small and narrow, in proportion to the body, and that on 

 these accounts : 1. Because neither lips nor teeth are employed in gathering the 

 food, as in other quadrupeds ; so that the mouth only serves to receive the 

 aliments from the proboscis, which both gathers and conveys them into it. 



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