FOOT—DISSECTION OF AN AYLESBURY DUCK. 199 
clusters of pinkish-white flowers, contrasting with its red filiform stem, 
were what first attracted attention. The field in which it grows has 
not been recently planted or turned up, though there are indications of 
old furrows in parts of it ; and the gentleman who takes the place every 
summer assures me that when his family first occupied it, thirteen years 
ago, that field was then hard, and presented the same appearance as at 
the present time. A few yards behind there are some furze bushes, and 
two fields distant there is a small crop of clover, but in neither case 
could I find any trace of the parasite. So limited is the occurrence of 
the plant, even in this single field, that itis to be feared that unless new 
habitats are ascertained it will speedily become extinct, and it is not 
improbable that the specimen you see before you is one of the few sur- 
vivors of a former colony, which is verging to extinction. 
Mr. A. G. More observed that he had lately sought carefully for this 
plant near the Maiden Tower, Drogheda, but in vain. 
Dr. A. W. Foot read the following Paper :— 
On Some Points OBSERVED IN THE DISSECTION OF AN 
AYLESBURY Ducx. 
Own the 14th of June, 1867, I examined the body of a very fine two- 
year-old Aylesbury drake for Mr. Richard Williams, for the purpose of 
ascertaining the cause of its death. 
While skinning it in the usual] manner, I remarked the external 
thoracic veins to be numerous, and congested with black blood; the sac 
of the pericardium, or membrane surrounding the heart, contained a 
quantity of semi-solidified fibrine, of a dirty-brown colour, adhering 
pretty firmly to the surface of the heart; the pericardial membrane itself 
was not thicker than is usual in birds, and was free from adhesions, 
lifting readily off the layer of jellied exudation which covered the sur- 
face of the heart; this layer was thickest at the apex of the heart, the 
external surface of which appeared to be unusually vascular. In 
cutting away the heart from its attachments, the large veins connected 
with its base—the pulmonary and the three cave-—were seen stuffed 
with black blood, which had coagulated into consistent plugs, forming 
moulds of the vessels, not unlike thin sticks of liquorice; the hepatic 
veins were occupied with similar impactions. 
Immediately on displacing the intestines, the great size of the tes- 
ticles attracted my attention; they resembled very much the human 
kidneys in shape and size; the right testicle measured three and a-half 
inches in length, and two inches in breadth; the left three inches five 
lines in length, one inch eleven lines in breadth. Together with about 
three inches of their vasa deferentia, the two weighed 4 ounces 63°79 
grains. In colour they were of a rosy yellow or creamy tint, and 
several large vessels ran transversely across their anterior surface, 
from without inwards, towards the middle line. This jar contains 
them, preserved in spirits; and this drawing, made at the time, 
represents their actual size and shape. A longitudinal section of 
