VOL. XLI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTrONS. 485 



Concerning the Foramen Ovale being found open in t/ie Hearts of Adults, and 

 of the Figure of the Canal of the Urethra. By M. le Cat* M. D., F. R. S. 

 ^c. N°46o, p. 681. 



In the winter of 1734 M. le Cat opened a great number of dead bodies of 

 men grown, and did not find the foramen ovale open in any of them. The 

 oldest of the male subjects, in which he found it open, was a lad of 15 years 

 of age. Of 20 bodies of women, which he examined, in 7 he found the fora- 

 men ovale open. 



Among the number of openings that remain of this foramen, there is a great 

 variety in their shape, and in that of the cicatrices or adherences of the valve: 

 however, they may conveniently be reduced to three sorts. 



The second sort of foramen ovale open in the adult, differs from the first 

 sort, in being more sunk, in, or more approaching the shape of a funnel. The 

 same foramen ovale of the second sort, seen on the side of the left auricle, 

 differs from the same side of that of the first sort, by the valve beginning to 

 make the goose-foot by its different attaches, which much resemble the columns 

 of the mitral valves of the heart. The foramen ovale of the third sort open 

 in the adult, differs from the preceding two, by the foramen ovale, nearly 

 forming a funnel. The same foramen ovale viewed on the side of the other or 

 left auricle, differs from the preceding ones, by the goose-foot formed by the 

 valve being much more compounded. 



The women in whom was found the foramen ovale of the second and third 

 sort, were about 6o years of age. 



The necessity M. le Cat was under of sounding frequently, and the diffi- 

 culties he sometimes met with in this nice operation, made him resolve scrupu- 

 lously to examine the figure of the canal of the urethra. On this he made a 

 number of experiments, two of which are here described. 



1 . He melted resin with wax, and injected this liquid through the urethra. 

 He filled the bladder but half way with it, in order to preserve all the wrinkles 

 of the canal. When the injection was cold and solid, he cut through the ossa 



» Claude Nicholas Le Cat taught and practised surgery at Rouen. He was, as Haller has re- 

 marked, a man of considerable ingenuity, but was ratlier too confident in his own abilities, and too 

 fond of inventing new hypotheses. He cultivated anatomy, physiology, and pathology, with great 

 assiduity; nevertheless, it is suspected that some of his anatomical observations were made inaccu- 

 rately, and many of his opinions are regarded as paradoxical. He wrote a number of dissertations, 

 such as a Treatise on Muscular Motion ; another on the Cause of Menstruation ; another on the Cause 

 of the black Colour in Negroes ; another on Lithotomy, &c. but his principal works, are his Traite 

 des Sensations et des Passions, and his Theorie de I'Ouie. A pension et des lettrcs de noblesse were 

 conferred upon him by Lewis XV. M. le Cat died in 1768, aged 68. 



