188.i.] PROF. LANKESTER ON THE HEART OF APTERYX. 481 



Garson has written me as follows in regard to these specimens, and 

 has very kindly afforded me an opportunity of examining them. 

 The result is conclusive, since I am now able to show what is the 

 condition of the right cardiac valve in the actual specimens dissected 

 by Sir Richard Owen, having previously shown what was the origin 

 of the he&Ti figured by him. 



Dr. Garson writes : — 



'• Eoyal College of Surgeons of England, 

 April 23, 188.5. 



" Dear Prof. Lankester, 



" I forward you a specimen of Apteryx partially dissected by 

 Prof. Owen, in which the heart is in situ but opened into, and I also 

 send another specimen of Aptenjx-ht&Tt tai<en from a bottle in 

 which are preserved the viscera and other parts of an Apteryx 

 dissected by Prof. Owen, and which he had treated with acid so as 

 to soften the bones. The auricle of iliis second specimen is opened. 

 We have a third specimen of Apteryx partly dissected, in which the 

 heart is untouched, and so cannot have been used for the drawing 

 showing the interior. 



"I do not think the illustration is taken from either of the specimens 

 I send you; consequently if Sir Richard Owen says he had only 

 three specimens of the bird, there is conclusive proof that the heart 

 of some other animal has been figured for Apteryx. 



" I should be greatly obliged if you would kindly let us have back 

 the specimens as soon as you have finished with them, 



Believe me. 



Yours very truly, 

 J. G. Garson." 



The specimens forwarded by Dr. Garson were examined by me in the 

 presence of Assistant- Professor Bourne, of University College. In the 

 first (that in situ in a dissected Apteryx) the left ventricle had been 

 horizontally cut, and an oblique cut had been effected in the extreme 

 left region of the right ventricular wall. But this cut was not such 

 as to render the right cardiac valve visible, still less would it have 

 been possible to make, from this specimen, the figure published by 

 Sir Richard in 1842. 



Similarly impossible was it for any information with regard to 

 the right cardiac valve to have been derived from the second speci- 

 men, since the wall of the ventricle was uncut. 



Since the third specimen of Jpieryx-heart in the College of 

 Surgeons store-collection is unopened in any way, we may accept Dr. 

 Garson's conclusion that the drawing published by Sir Richard 

 Owen in 1842 was not made from any one of these specimens ; and 

 since they are the three specimens of Apteryx which were at Sir 

 Richard's disposal, and seeing that according to his statement he had 

 no other specimens of the Apteryx, the drawing in question cannot 

 have been taken from an Apteryx-heart. 



Lastly, I have had the interesting opportunity of seeing ivhat 

 actually is the condition of the right cardiac valve in two out of three 

 of Sir Richard's original specimens. The third specimen, which has 



