46 
Weights of Human Viscera 
measurements of this kind appear to be rather despised by post-mortem clerks, 
and the records are, from the quantitative point of view, very disappointing. 
Weights are frequently omitted altogether; sometimes we read "Spleen about 3 
or 4 ozs."; at others, the ingenious writer appears to have given free play to his 
imagination, and we read of a man of forty-six years of age having a heart 
weighing one ounce ! * 
It is much to be desired that, in future, more accurate methods of recording 
these simple observations should be adopted, so that large numbers of valuable 
facts may be rendered available for statistical inquiry. In my own research, after 
excluding the large majority of the examinations, there yet remained a considerable 
number of fairly trustworthy data suitable for tabulation, and this paper contains 
some of the results deduced therefrom, which it is hoped will not be without 
interest. I propose to divide my subject into four parts : 
First. I shall discuss the average sizes, variabilities, and correlations of the 
heart, liver, spleen, and kidneys in the general population, diseased and normal, to 
be found within a London general hospital. 
Secondly. I shall consider only cases in which the organs were found healthy 
on post-morte7n examination. We shall thus to some extent be able to appreciate 
the influence of disease in modifying the biometric constants of the organs in 
question. 
Thirdly. I propose to deal with the influence of age on the biometric constants 
for the viscera in man. 
And, lastly. I shall consider the influence of certain special diseases from the 
same standpoint. All the data dealt with in this memoir arc for males, the 
number of females in my collection being very much smaller. As far as I am 
aware, no investigation of this kind on the viscera has yet been undertaken, and 
mine does not profess in any respect to be more than a preliminary study. Its 
object is to draw attention to the need of better post-mortem room records, and 
to indicate the wide field of valuable research which they open up, not only to the 
biometrician but to the physicianf. 
2. The General Hospital Population. 
In my first series of tables I have dealt, subject to certain limitations, with a 
random sample of a general hospital population. To avoid the extreme changes 
due to youthful growth or senile decay I have tabulated only cases between the 
* L. H. Path, ru-ports, 1899, No. 661. 
t " II ne faut jamais negliger de peser les organes, surtout ceux qui sont atteiuts de lesions patho- 
logiques ; le poids fournit souvent eu effet des renseignements pr(lcieux sur le degre et sur I'importance 
des lesions ; on n'oublieia pas cepeudant qu'il existe sur ee point des variations individuelles con- 
siderables Le poids total du sujet, la taille, I'age, le sexe sont tout autant de conditions qui font 
varier le poids des organes eux-memes." (Bard: Precis d'Anat. Path. p. 736.) 
