OF THE GREAT ANTERIOR VEINS. 
157 
(S. A variety of double vena azygos is described by Bartholine, which may have 
been owing to the azygos and azygos minor, of nearly equal size, ending in the cor- 
responding superior intercostal veins*. 
y. In other kinds of double azygos, a right and a left vein coexist, and becoming 
widened below, discharge themselves in the lumbar or emulgent veins'f'. 
4. The right intercostal system broken up, the left more consolidated. — In this some- 
what rare condition, the trunk of the azygos vein is reduced to a very small vessel, 
ending as usual in the superior cava ; but most of the right intercostal veins pass over 
to the left side, where they form a large left azygos ending above in the left innomi- 
nate vein through the left superior intercostal:}:. 
5. The right azygos vein entirely ivanting. — In all the preceding varieties of the 
intercostal system of veins, with their intermediate gradations (excepting |8), the 
vena azygos is still present, though sometimes represented by a very small vessel. 
The persistence of the right cardinal vein is therefore remai-kably constant. It is 
possible, however, to conceive this vessel to be entirely obliterated, so that there 
should be no vein arching over the right bronchus to end in the upper cava. No 
perfectly unexceptionable example of this condition has been recorded 
c. Varieties in the Coronary Vein of the Heart. 
As might almost be anticipated, these are few and very rarely occur. One instance 
is mentioned by Meckel and one by Jeffray in which the coronary vein ends in 
the left auricle 1]. The most unexpected deviation, however, is that in which the 
blood of the coronary vein reaches the heart through some remote vein instead of 
Mascagni (Syst. Vas. Lymphat. tab. 19). Haller (Element. Phys. t. iii. sect. i. p. 107). Otto (op. cit. 
pp. 347, 348, notes 18, 20). Wrisberg (De Vena Azyga duplici, &c. 1778. Observat. 1 and 2). Wilde 
(Comment. Petropol. vol. xii. p. 318). Breschet (loc. cit. p. 9). Lauth (Manuel d’Anatomiste. Paris, 1826, 
p. 592) ; and several other authors. 
* Bartholine, Thom. (Hist. Anatom. 84. Cent. ii. p. 322. 1641). “I have often seen,” he says, “in 
man and animals a double vena azygos, one on each side, leading from the axillary veins.” 
t Eustachius (Explic. Tab. Anat. xxvi. xxvii.). Breschet {loc. cit.). • 
+ Valentin (Journal de Medecine. Paris, 1791, tom. 86, p. 238). 
§ One is related by Wrisberg {op. cit. Observat. 3), which, he remarks, was unique in 200 observations ; 
but it seems probable that the vein was here obliterated by the effects of pressure. There was no azygos 
ending in the upper cava, but all the blood from the right side passed into the left vein, which was very large, 
and joined the left subclavian opposite to the termination of the thoracic duct. The subject was a boy, aged 
five years. The right lung was changed into a solid substance (steatoma), and it was universally and firmly 
adherent. Large hardened bronchial glands were found along the right side of the trachea down to the bron- 
chus. On the left side the lung was free. 
(1 Meckel (Handbuch der Mensch. Anat. vol. iii. p. 67). The case is also described by Lindner (Diss. 
de Lymph. Syst. Halae, 1787, p. 21). Jeffray (Observat. on the Heart of the Foetus, p. 2). The preparation 
which exhibits this very remarkable deviation, is now in the Museum of the University of Glasgow, and has re- 
cently been carefully re-examined by Professor Allen Thomson and Professor Sharpey. 
