very unusual Formation of the human Heart. 353 
blood, mixing and blending with the dark or unoxygenated 
blood, would render the whole nearly as much oxygenated as 
it usually is found in the left side of the heart, and in the aorta ; 
therefore, that the blood circulating in the arteries of this child 
would be fully equal to the support of life. Previous to birth, 
this peculiarity of structure could not affect its health or growth, 
as the placenta then answers the purpose which the lungs do 
afterwards ; and the single ventricle seemed as equal, from its 
size, to propel the blood on to the placenta, as both ventricles 
in the natural state are, by means of their communication 
through the ductus arteriosus * 
The inference which has been drawn seems further con- 
firmed, from the colour and heat of this child, during life, being 
not perceptibly different from those of other children. In all 
those cases of malformation of the heart where the foramen 
ovale, or the ductus arteriosus, has continued open ; or where 
the septum of the ventricles has been perforated, and the pul- 
monary artery small, (and at the same time two ventricles,) it 
has been observed, that the body had a livid colour, and, in ge- 
neral, that there was a deficiency of heat. 
From the particular inquiries which I made, concerning 
the heat and colour of this child, of the professional gentlemen 
who saw it during life, and of the nurse who attended and 
* It is here not unworthy of remark, that the circulation in this child, after its 
birth, was in several circumstances similar to the circulation in other children previous 
to that period. A child, before birth, may be said to have a single heart ; as both the 
auricles communicate together, by means of the foramen ovale ; and the pulmonary 
artery communicates with the aorta, by means of the ductus arteriosus. Hence, in the 
fcetal heart, the blood returned from the body, which is of a dark colour, and the blood 
returned from the placenta, which is florid, are poured into the same auricle ; the blood 
which is sent to the placenta is therefore already in part oxygenated. 
Z z 
MDCCXCVIII. 
