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Show 188.).] PROF, L A N K E S T E R O N T H E H E A R T O F A P T E R Y X . 481 Garson has written me as follows in regard to these specimens, and has very kindly afforded me an opportunity of examining them. Ihe result is conclusive, since I am now able to show what is the condition of the right cardiac valve in the actual specimens dissected by Sir Richard Owen, having previously shown what was the origin of the heart figured by him. Dr. Garson writes :- '• Royal College of Surgeons of England, April 23, 1885. " Dear P R O F . L A N K E S T E R, " I forward you a specimen of Apteryx partially dissected by Prof. Owen, in which the heart \sin situ but opened into, and Ialso send another specimen of Apteryx-heart taken from a bottle in which are preserved the viscera and other parts of an Apteryx dissected by Prof. Owen, and which he had treated with acid so as to soften the bones. The auricle of this second specimen is opened. W e have a third specimen of Apteryx partly dissected, in which the heart is untouched, and so cannot have been used for the drawing showing the interior. " I do not think the illustration is taken from either of the specimens I send you; consequently if Sir Richard Owen says he had only three specimens of the bird, there is conclusive proof that the heart of some other animal has been figured for Apteryx. " I should be greatly obliged if you would kindly let us have back the specimens as soon as you have finished with them, Believe me, Yours very truly, J. G. GARSON." The specimens forwarded by Dr.Garson were examined by me in the presence of Assistant-Professor Bourne, of University College. In the first (that in situ in a dissected Apteryx) the left ventricle had been horizontally cut, and an oblique cut had been effected in the extreme left region of the right ventricular wall. But this cut was not such as to render the right cardiac valve visible, still less would it have been possible to make, from this specimen, the figure published by Sir Richard in 1842. Similarly impossible was it for any information with regard to the right cardiac valve to have been derived from the second specimen, since the wall of the ventricle was uncut. Since the third specimen of Apteryx-heart in the College of Surgeons store-collection is unopened in any way, we may accept Dr. Garson's conclusion that the drawing published by Sir Richard Owen in 1842 was not made from any one of these specimens ; and since they are the three specimens of Apteryx which were at Sir Richard's disposal, and seeing that according to his statement he had no other specimens of the Apteryx, the drawing in question cannot have been taken from an Apteryx-heart. Lastly, I have had the interesting opportunity of seeing ivhat actually is the condition of the right cardiac valve in two out of three of Sir Richard's original specimens. The third specimen, which has |