FR. BLAZHKO VIC. 
298 
changes in the heart are developed as attendants of the already 
existing anomalies, making the discovery of the primary innate 
abnormity exceedingly difficult; indeed, scarcely possible. The 
most striking feature of the innate anomalies of the heart is the 
change of position. This condition of things makes it useless to 
attempt to prove by the faulty position of the heart the time of 
the origin, as has been tried upon the human being. This 
remains a task for the embryologist. 
Of the innate defects of the heart, the imperfect positions 
strike the examiner most frequently, but these also are often 
overlooked in practice. Taking for granted that the normal 
position of the heart is known, we shall bring forth some impor¬ 
tant moments: The connection of the heart with the lung forms 
in the first place, a region where abnormities can occur, then the 
approximation of the apex of the heart to the thoracic walls. 
The position of the anomalies are to be divided as follows: 
(a) Defective Position within the Cavity of the Chest .—Grow¬ 
ing together of the heart with the lung or diaphragm, cleaving of 
the pericardium, partial bursting and then growing together of 
the diaphragm, defective attachment to the walls of the vessels 
and the principal primary vessels, causing a shriveling of the 
heart, hence a change of space at the base and apex; a too deep 
position and envelopment of the lungs, producing a defective 
freedom of action; finally, a dislocation of the whole heart, as 
the result of growing together. 
(b) Defective Position of the Heart without the Cavity of the 
Chest. —According to the views of Prof. Caroli,* it is mostly a 
laceration of the diaphragm originating from the early stage of 
the embryo, which admits a displacement either of the organs of 
the abdomen, or the organs of the heart into the abdomen, thus 
a sort of prolapse actually occurs. Animals with such prolapses 
can live a long time. Prof. Ceddi-Bologna describes a case of 
ectopia of one lobe of the liver in the pericardium of a mule 
which was destroyed in its twelfth year for anatomical purposes. 
I myself observed in a two-day-old filly, the position outside the 
* Gazette Medico Veterinaria; Milano, 1875. 
