Contribution to the anatomy of double monsters / [Alfred Poland].

  • Poland, Alfred, 1822-1872.
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contribution to the anatomy of double monsters / [Alfred Poland]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tines, without any attempt at fusiop. Each had its own pair of kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urachus. Circulating system.— [fie blood is conveyed to these foe¬ tuses by one large umbilical vein: this passes upward between the two livers, which required exposing by sepa¬ rating these organs. The vein is thus found giving’offa large series of trunks to the one liver, while the main trunk passes upward, and at the transverse fissure of the liver joins the venm portae (not shewn in the Plate), and enters to supply the other liver. After this branching the vein continues its course as the ductus venosus to the inferior vena cava: this latter vessel also here receives the hepatic and renal veins, and then passes into the auricles. The peculiarity of the one foetus consists in that there is no direct supply of the maternal blood to its own heart, it being derived from the circulation and heart of the other foetus. The pulmonary veins of the right foetus enter the auricle as usual, but the veins from each lung run separately. Those of the left foetus are remarkable, for here they form a com¬ mon trunk, which passes down, and ramifies in the structure of the liver. With respect to the large vessels arising from the heart little need be said, beyond mentioning the peculiarities therein evinced. The pulmonary artery of the one foetus is large, and compensates for a small aorta. The aorta of the other . foetus is very large, and has a trunk common to the right and left ventricles. With respect to the signs of life said to have been observed in one of these foetuses, St. Hilaire makes the following ob¬ servation on the fact: he says, “ It is remarkable that among the sternopages there are none which have not been born dead, or else have died very shortly after birth. Their non¬ viability is very naturally explained by their common heart, it being formed of two organs too intimately united to per¬ form functions independent of each other, and at the same time too complex to act as a single heart, and propel the blood of the two foetuses in a single, and consequently harmonious movement.”