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the heart itfelf ( i). Very few anatomifts, in defcribing 
this organ, have eftimated its fize by its weight. Dr. 
Haller (2), where he treats fo amply and profeffedly 
upon the heart, does not, from his own knowledge, 
mention its weight. From Tabor, he fays, it is efti- 
mated at ten ounces; but this is fuppofed to be when 
freed from the auricles, as well as the extremities of 
the larger veffels. Its mean weight by fome other 
anatomifts is reckoned at thirteen ounces. 
Aneurifms of the heart, both with and without 
polypofe concretions, are not unfrequent ; many in- 
lfances occur in the writers of obfervations. Dr. Dou- 
glas (3)faw a young man, who died of a palpitation 
of the heart, the left ventricle of which was found 
three times larger than the right. This cafe bears a 
conliderable analogy to the inftance before us j and is 
quoted, among feveral others, by the Baron Van 
Swieten, in treating upon aneurifms of the heart (4). 
The baron alfo relates a cafe from Lancifi, in which 
the left ventricle was twice as large as the right ; and 
the whole heart weighed two pounds and an half. 
Hoffman, in his fyftema, when treating upon the 
palpitation of the heart, gives us a cafe, where the 
heart was greatly diftended ; but he does not afcertain 
to what degree, by any method whatever : he only 
fays, cor mirce fait magnitudinis (5). 
(1) Hoffman. Opera omnia, Tom. I. lib. i. cap. vi. De 
Sanguinis Circuitu. Suppl. II. Part. iii. p. 65. Hift. Corp. 
Human. Anatom. § 641. 
(2) Element. Phyfiolog. Vol. I. p. 326. 
(3) Phil. Tranf. abridged by Jones, Vol. V. p. 229. 
(4) Comment, in Aphor. Vol. I. ad fed. 176. 
(5) Opera omnia, Tom. III. p. 92. 
De 
