PROGRESS OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ART. 583 
The last instance of external thoracic displacement of the 
heart that I have to mention is one related in the sixth volume 
of the 4 Transactions of the Pathological Society of London. 5 
The specimen exhibited to the Society had been removed 
from a child supposed to have been in utero eight months ; 
this child was a male; it presented no other deformity, and 
lived thirteen hours after birth. The case occurred in the 
practice of Mr. Bayne, of Poplar. 
“ The heart, devoid of pericardium, is of a conical shape, 
with a somewhat truncated apex ; the direction of its axis 
is normal, though situated in a place a little below that which 
it would have occupied in its natural position within the 
chest. The groove separating the auricles and ventricles is 
distinct, as is likewise that between the two ventricles. On 
the right of its base the right auricle forms a well-marked 
projection, its appendage resting upon the corresponding ven- 
tricle ; of the left auricle, which is considerably smaller than 
the right, very little is seen on the anterior aspect of the heart. 
Connected wdth the base are the great vessels, which enter 
and leave the thorax by an opening in its anterior wall. 
This opening is of an oval shape, its long diameter being- 
vertical and three quarters of an inch in extent, its short 
diameter transverse, and half an inch in extent. The margin 
of this fissure is obscured anteriorly by a prolongation of 
the skin on to the great vessels, and from these on to the 
external surface of the heart ; the cuticle may be traced as 
far as the base of the viscus, and slightly over the auricles, 
but beyond this point there is no epithelial covering, the 
muscular substance being covered by a structure , shown , on micro- 
scopical examination , to be a white fibrous , mixed with yellow 
elastic , tissue .* The closing up of the thoracic foramen is 
completed posteriorly by the reflection of the pleura from 
the great vessels on to the parietes of the thorax.” 
The heart assumes other anomalous positions, and I last 
month alluded to a case published by Leimer, in the Reper- 
torium for 1852, at page 36. This is a case of cervical 
ectopia. It occurred in a well-formed and strongly deve- 
loped calf. The heart was situated on the left side, and 
nearly in the middle of the neck, and lodged in a hollow 
excavated in the cervical muscles ; it was covered by a white 
fibrous membrane. The heart was perfectly free in this bag ; it 
was of normal size, but somewhat flabby. 
* The Italics are my own, as I wish to draw special attention to 
Alessandrini’s reflections, which I have strong grounds to believe correct, 
notwithstanding what has been said to the contrary. This is a very im- 
portant fact as connected with other pathological conditions of the heart. 
