THE ANATOMY OF THE INDIAN ELEPHANT. 69 



almost reversed; the superior groove was shallow and unim- 

 portant, whereas the apical interventricular groove was deep and 

 conspicuous. The right side of the heart is, so to speak, rotated 

 upon the centre of the left ; the right auricle being thrown to 

 the dorsal surface of the heart, while the principal axis of the 

 right side, passing directly through the auriculo-ventricular 

 orifice, is inclined upwards, instead of lying nearly horizontal, 

 as does that of the left side in the animal as it stands. The 

 inferior face (anterior of man) gives no indication of this tilting 

 of the right side, except that the right auricle is displaced ; the 

 two ventricles meet along a straight line and divide the lower 

 surface nearly equally. Vulpian and Philipeaux found much 

 fat at the base and on the front of the ventricles — the only 

 instance we can recollect in which any considerable quantity of 

 this substance has been met with in any part of the elephant. 

 The heart dissected by us was perfectly destitute of fat. 



Bight Auricle. — The walls are thin, but strengthened by pecti- 

 nated muscles above, as well as in the appendix, which is 

 hardly separable from the general cavity. Vulpian and 

 Philipeaux describe the wall as areolated towards the venae 

 cavse, but this was not the case in our example, except behind 

 the left anterior cava. Two anterior vense cavse (right and left) 

 enter, one towards the base, the other towards the apical end, 

 and a posterior vena cava on the dorsal and external side, some- 

 what in front of the left anterior cava. A sigmoid valve passes 

 from the external side of the right anterior cava, adjacent to 

 the appendix, curves round the ventral side of the orifice, and 

 is then continued as a long membranous ridge of slight projec- 

 tion to the basal or anterior side of the posterior cava ; it then 

 crosses that opening on its ventral margin, becoming somewhat 

 more prominent, and serving as a proper valve to the posterior 

 cava ; finally, it gradually disappears along the base of attach- 

 ment of the Eustachian valve. This agrees tolerably well with the 

 description of Vulpian and Philipeaux ; and with Dr Watson's 

 figure, though in the text of his description he says that the 

 valve passed round the upper margin of the right anterior cava. 

 A large Eustachian valve separates the posterior from the left 

 anterior cava. The great coronary vein opens into the left 

 anterior cava under cover of a pectinated muscle. 



