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tomy. He was remarkable for the lividity of his complexion, the turges- 

 cence of the vessels of the conjunctiva, and the thickness of his lips, 

 which like the rest of his face, were of a dark colour, his respiration 

 was laborious, his pulse irregular, he could not utter two words in suc- 

 cession without taking breath ; was obliged to sleep in a sitting posture, 

 and was particularly remarkable for his indolence. This indolence, join- 

 ed to great simplicity of nature, was such, that he had never been able to 

 maintain himself without the assistance of his wife. A very small quan- 

 tity of blood was taken from his arm, in consequence of which his pains 

 were diminished, but his difficulty of breathing increased, was followed 

 by syncope, and he died from suffocation. On opening his body, his heart 

 was found filled with blood, and especially the right auricle, which was 

 considerably distended ; the pulmonary artery was aneurismal, and uni- 

 formly distended from the right ventricle, to its division ; none of its 

 coats had yet given way. The two ventricles of the heart were of nearly 

 the same capacity, and the relative thickness of their parietes did not 

 vary so much as in health. The partition between them, contained an 

 opening of communication of an oblong shape, about half an inch in ex- 

 tent, and directed obliquely from below upwards, from before backward, 

 and from left to right, so that, not only the direction of the opening, but 

 likewise a kind of valve formed in the right ventricle, by a fleshy column, 

 so placed as to prevent the return of the blood into the left ventricle : 

 clearly showed, that the blood flowed from the left into the right ventri- 

 cle, and thence into the pulmonary artery. Theductus arteriosus,an inch 

 in length, and large enough to admit a goose quill, allowed, as in the foe- 

 tus, a free passage to the blood, from the pulmonary artery into the aorta. 

 The foramen ovale was closed. 



This singular conformation explains, in the most satisfactory manner, 

 the phenomena observed during the life of the patient, and the organic 

 affection of the pulmonary artery. There was necessarily, in this vessel, 

 a mixture of venous and arterial blood, and this blood was sent into it, in 

 part by the action of the left ventricle, with an increased impetus, which 

 accounts for the aneurism. The blood which reached the lungs was al- 

 ready vivified, and required less action from that organ, to complete its 

 oxyd'ation; on the other hand, the right auricle emptied itself, with dif- 

 ficulty, into the right ventricle, in part filled with the blood which the 

 left ventricle sent into it with greater force: hence the extreme difficulty 

 in the venous circulation, the lividity of the complexion, the colour and 

 the puffiness of the face, the habitual and general torpor. This state of 

 langour and inactivity might, likewise, depend on the flow of the venous 

 blood into the aorta, along the ductus arteriosus. It is worthy of obser- 

 vation, however, that this impure blood was not transmitted to the brain, 

 whose vital excitement it would not have been able to maintain. 

 lower extremities bore no proportion to the upper, and this inequality 

 analogous to what is observed in the foetus, depended on a similar cause. 

 This morbid preparation was deposited by M. Deschamps, in the museum 

 of the Ecole de Medicine of Paris, and was, by their desire, modelled in 

 wax. M. Beauchene, junior, presented the same museum with a similar 

 preparation, which he procured from a subject in the dissecting room. 



Several anatomists have paid attention to the structure of the heart; 

 much has been said on the subject of the peculiar arrangement of the 

 muscular fibres which form its 'parietes, yet, the only result that can be 

 obtained from all these researches is, that it is absolutely impossible to 



