■420 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1730. 



On some uncommon Anastomoses of the Spermatic Vessels in a IVoman. Bu 

 Cromwell Mortimer, M. D. R. S. Seer. N" 415, p. 373. 



Eustachius is the onlyauthor who has given any delineation of an immediate 

 communication between the spermatic arteries and veins, during their course 

 along the cavity of the abdomen ; which is distinctly laid down in his anatomical 

 tables, Romae in folio, 17 14. Boerhaave, from him, mentions these anasto- 

 moses, in his Institut. Med. §642; and also cites Leal Lealis in his treatise 

 riEfi l-Tn^fj-xTt^ovrm Oj'yai/wi', Lugd. Bat. 8vo. 1707, p. 1 8 ad 25; where he fully 

 refutes de Graaf, who denies these anastomoses; but even Leal allows that he 

 never saw them, and only argues for them from the effect, and the close union 

 of the spermatic vein and artery in one covering as they run together. Mar- 

 chetti in his anatomy, Hardevicse 12mo. 1 656, Chap, of the Parts of Genera- 

 tion in a Man, asserts this anastomosis, p. 58, but it seems he never saw 

 them; nor has Dr. M. conversed with any, even anatomists, the most cele- 

 brated for their injections, who had hit on a subject, where these passages were 

 open enough to transmit the subtile matter they inject with. 



In the beginning of the year 1723, being at Paris, and at the Hotel Dieu 

 having an opportunity of dissecting various bodies. Dr. M. met with a female 

 subject, where these anastomoses were as large as the spermatic vessels them- 

 selves; so that the arteries being injected with a gross mixture of wax, tallow, 

 and vermilion, and the veins with the same, only tinged with smalt, the injec- 

 tion ran out of the artery into the vein, and on the other hand out of the 

 vein into the artery ; so that where one vessel entered the other, the matter in- 

 jected was tinged purple. The arteries were first injected with the red, and the 

 veins afterward with the blue matter. 



What appeared most rsmarkable in this subject was, that on the right side 

 were two spermatic arteries, a and b, fig. 3, pi. 11. One a, arose from the 

 very angle made by the emulgent and the trunk of the aorta descendens c, 

 which, contrary to the common course, ran under the vena cava, and soon 

 after it was got beyond it, sent out a lateral branch, or anastomosis, descending 

 obliquely ef into the spermatic vein g, through which the red matter penetrated 

 into the vein; which being afterwards filled with blue, became purple all about 

 the orifice of this vessel at f; which seems to confirm Eustachius's delineations. 

 This artery a then descended as usual to the right ovary h. 



The other right spermatic artery b arose, as usual, out of the trunk of the 

 aorta, but at about half an inch from its rise, it sent out an anastomosis IK, 

 ascending obliquely into the body of the vena cava d, through which a large 

 tjuantity of the red matter passed, so as to tinge purple a very broad place at k. 



