DISEASE OF THE LUNGS AND CHIEF ARTERIAL TRUNKS. 813 
disease known as atheroma which is so frequently met with 
in the inner coats of the arteries. The inner surface of 
the left side of the heart, aorta, and its divisions, for about 
ten inches from the base of the heart, were found to be 
extensively covered with a deposit of earthy matter. Mr. 
Littler considers this deposit to be beneath the lining mem¬ 
brane, but I am led to a contrary opinion from not being 
able to detect the slightest trace of membrane upon the free 
surface of the calcareous matter, and from the fact of the 
vessels conveying arterial blood being only affected. So far 
as I am aware, there is nothing in the structure of the coats of 
the blood-vessels connected directly with the left side of the 
heart in particular which would predispose them to be thus 
affected, and consequently one is led to the inference that 
the arterial blood either contained a greater amount of effete 
material depending upon defective excretion than the 
venous blood, or that the rapidity of its flow favoured the 
deposit in question. The latter circumstance, however, does 
not explain the cretafication of the pulmonary veins. Here 
and there I noticed, and more especially on the endocardium , 
some milky looking opaque patches, which had a gristly 
consistence, and were studded in places with granules of 
earthy matter, as though the animal matter had become 
dissolved by disintegration and been carried away by the 
stream of blood, leaving the earthy matter behind it. This 
hypothesis seems to be borne out, to some extent, by the 
appearance of the earthy deposit in several other places, 
especially where it was thickest. Here the surface was com¬ 
paratively rough, and looking as though one part of the 
originally deposited matter had been dissolved and removed 
from the other, which had been left behind in a granular 
form. 
I further observed that the slight depressions, as also the 
ridges which existed, mostly ran in a longitudinal direction 
with the vessel, vhereas the bony plates which are met 
with in cases of ossification of the inner surface of the 
middle coat of an artery, show lines which take the same 
circular course as the fibres of this coat, which to my 
mind is an indication that such deposit did not result from 
the current of blood in the vessels. If these remarks are 
at all feasible, it appears to me that they establish a con¬ 
necting link between the disease of the mesenteric glands, 
the lungs, and that of the blood-vessels and left side of the 
heart. 
In conclusion, I may add that the nature and peculiarity 
of this affection, its steady advance, as also its duration and 
