6. Malformation of the Heart.—Drs. Baillie,[29] Langstaff,[30] and Farre[31] have each published cases; and M. Tiedemann, in his journal of Physiology, now adds a fourth, in which the aorta and pulmonary artery were found to have changed places. In professor Tiedemann's case, the two circulations were entirely distinct; the systemic blood passing from venæ cavæ to right auricle, from right auricle to right ventricle, and from this, through the aorta, to the body at large; while the pulmonary blood ran through an equally simple circle, by the route of pulmonary veins, left auricle, left ventricle, and pulmonary artery. The only communications between the two circulations, were the foramen ovale, the ductus arteriosus, and, in the opinion of M. Tiedemann, the inosculations between the branches of the pulmonary and bronchial arteries.
The infant is recorded to have presented no peculiar appearances till the ninth day; when attacks of suffocation came on, attended with the blackish blue colour, and followed by death, at the end of twelve days. Similar histories are said to be given of the cases mentioned above, and the references to which we have copied. We have not the time to consult them.—Ibid.
7. Acephalous Mummy.—M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire has read a memoir of some length to the Academy of Sciences, on an acephalous mummy. It was found in a catacomb, destined, with this exception, exclusively to animals. It had an amulet suspended round its neck, being an earthen figure of a cynocephalus, for which it was very probably mistaken by the Egyptians. The collector, M. Passalacqua, who obtained it, showed it to M. G. St. H. as a monkey, of which he wished to know the species. Yet the latter observes that these amulets were only put on human mummies.
M. G. concludes that the monkeys, elephants, &c. said by Livy, Valerius Maximus, Pliny, and others, to have been born of women in their times, and considered as omens of public calamity, were acephala.
8. New Anatomical Plates.—Messrs. E. W. Tyson and George Simpson are publishing anatomical plates, in London. They are spoken of with approbation. The labours of the latter are designed for the use of painters.
9. A Manual of Osteology has been undertaken by Dr. Weber, of Bonn, and one volume published.
10. Sœmmering's fine work on the anatomy of the ear, has been translated into French, and his splendid folio plates copied in lithography.
11. Does the conjunctiva run over the cornea? Messrs. Lecoq, Leblanc, and Artus, state that they have each seen a case in which regular skin and hair were seen, forming a small patch on the cornea of the eye of a quadruped. This is considered as a proof of the existence there of a membrane naturally analogous to the skin; which must, of course, be the conjunctiva. An officer saw another case, in which a hair was seen in the middle of the eye of a horse.—Bulletin.