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VI. On the Development of the Great Anterior Veins in Man and Mammalia ; 
including an Account of certain remnants of Fcetal Structure found in the 
Adult, a Comparative View of these Great Veins in the different Mammalia , 
and an Analysis of their occasional peculiarities in the Human Subject. By John 
Marshall, F.R.C.S., late Demonstrator of Anatomy in University College, Lon- 
don; Assistant Surgeon to the University College Hospital. Communicated by 
Professor Sharpe y, F.R.S. 
Received June 19, — Read June 21, 1849. 
The principal object of the present paper is to state the result of observations 
on the metamorphosis of certain of the g-reat veins in Man and Mammalia, and 
on the relation between the primitive and final condition of these vessels, both 
when they pass through their changes in the usual order, and in cases of deviation 
from it. 
It is well known that in the mammalian embryo the great veins entering the heart 
from the upper or anterior part of the body are originally symmetrical on the two 
sides ; and that in Man, the Quadrurnana and most of the higher orders of quadru- 
peds, the venous trunk of the left side undergoes occlusion ; whilst in other Mam- 
malia that vessel continues, and constitutes, in the adult state, a left vena cava an 
terior, which passes down in front of the left lung, and then along the back of the 
heart in the auriculo-ventricular groove to terminate in the right auricle. Certain 
points of analogy between these different conditions are suggested by a careful exa- 
mination of the great veins in adult hearts, more especially of what is usually regarded 
in the human subject as the dilated termination of the great coronary vein in the 
right auricle. This portion of the vessel (Plate I. fig. s), which has muscular 
parietes, is, on account of its width, usually named the coronary sinus. Its length 
may be considered as defined by a valve (x) placed about an inch or more from its 
opening into the right auricle. This valve, which was known to Vieussens*, has 
been again recently pointed out by Dr. John Reid-I-, and is described by him as 
generally existing and formed of one or two segments. In all the examinations 
which I have made I have found it present, and always consisting of two segments ; 
a larger one placed on the side of the auriculo-ventricular furrow, and a smaller one 
situated on the free side of the vein, and therefore liable to be divided in slitting up 
* Tralte de la Structure, &c. du Coeur, Toulouse, 1715, p. 56. 
t Cyc. Anat. and Phys., Art. Heart, p. 597. 
