vena cava
in the operation, and that the dog had bled to death internally; and she wished to know my opinion. I replied, that the charge proceeded from ignorance or malice, or both. That in one sense he was right — the jugular, which the other had probably opened, runs into the vena cava, and may, with some latitude, be considered a superior branch of it; therefore, thus far the first man had punctured the
vena cava
, which I had done many hundred times; but that the point of union of the four principal veins that form the
vena cava
was too securely seated in the upper part of the thorax for any lancet to reach it. That the rupture of some small arterial vessel might have caused this lingering death, but that the puncture of a vein would either have been speedily fatal, or of no consequence; and that, probably, the animal died of the disease which she had described.
[Contents]/[Detailed Contents, p. 6]/[Index]