The Hickman courier., 1869-03-27
a New York Man with Heart
and Liver Reversed.


4 A well known citizen died a few day.
ago. All his life long he had suffered
from chronic pain in the left side, and
IN the region of the heart, while the pull
satlons of the heart seemed to be on the
irighs side, and when he was much ex-
cited he used to say his heart had got
into the wrong place. He was a martyr
also to bilious disease. He was obliged
to support himself with a stick, and was
troubled with great difficulty of breath
ing and an irritability of temper that
made IT at all times almost impossible to
i've with him. Notwithstanding theae
symptoms of complicated disease, he took
considerable interest in sanitary affairs,
land devised a scheme for the efficient
drainage of the city by means of a vast
system of subterranean streets. twelve
feet wide on both sides the main street.
vaulted and ventilated, with a stream of
water running in the middle of them,
and an ample sidewalk. He was a gen
lus, IN short, and beside his love for the
tne arts, he had invented an organ of
vast proportions, which will play unaided
the whole music of several operas. Like
all who had gone before him, however,
he had his death day, and the medical |
man who attended him watched his last
few days of sickDess with very nncom
mon interest, so much so as to attract the
attention of his family.
1t came out afterward that the physi-
elan had tried to persuade him to give up
his body to the surgeons for dissection.
his complaints being so unusual and
some of his symptoms new to science. SO
much as induce the supposition of some
Internal malformation. The old gentle
man had no objection to offer on his own /
account, but thought the fact should be q
iept from the knowledge of his wife and I
amily. So at last he died, and the ply t
ician who attended him, and is at the a
lead OF one Of our medical colleges also. 7
made arrangements with a resurrection t
nan to steal the body on the night of C
he interment and carry it to a hospital o
II which happened without any mis- s.
dventure. The family physician was fl
resent at the dissection of the BODY. and in
ndertook to demonstrate upon it. When Of
ie sternum was divided, amazing dis al
'yery was made that the heart and the I'll
yer had changed places, the heart being m
/ the right side and the liver on the n'
tt. This change in the two great vital al
gans changed also the position of the ez
her organs, and caused an extension of he
me OF the vital ducts Nature had tn
eated order out of the disorder, so that to
J 5yitai fuass;~.-..ssts = PeLOn TO ~ ~
The position of the heart and its 'p- -
ndases was simply reversed. The up
r border of the heart was just below FL
inc that would uu:A4 .hird costal
rtilages, and the -<Sofresponded to
e inter-space between the cartilage, of !.
e fifth and sixth ribbs, nearly two WI
,hes below the right nipple, which is pa
ecisely and it adjustment in its state opl oi
e left side. The two suriclcs, which-io'
We no connection with each other ma
rally in adults, were in this case con- pu
cted, and there was very small aper- az az
re of communication with the venticles, VI
stead of large and ample one. In pu
e left auricle, which, if the heart had sI !,
en- on the other side, would have been vi
e right auricle, the Eustachian valve, pa
lich is a relic of the fetal heart, was IGI III
rye instead of being much diminished, y,
is usually the case In adults and the Pi
$50 oualis, which is usually a simple NJ s
pression on the interauricuiar walls, OF
e openina of the foetal heart allowing ID
mixture of the black and red blood,
IS large. The heart was six inches III !,
d an eight in length, and three and
rec a quarters in breadth, and nearly 1r'
rec in the antero -posterior diameter.
After the demonstration, which we e
we only given slight glimpse of, the ki !.
art was removed, and, when weighed, vi
und, to be eoas' . thirteen ounces
e usual aver eight being from ten qu
twelve, and ilaud says only eight IA "a
lnces.
The liver CO.., the left, instead of an an
c right hypocho. riac and epigastric ~ u,
gions below the diaphragm-above the :
omach duodenum, arch of the colon, 81
ii bladder, and left kidney. The up y,c
# surface was a good deal fattened. so
he peritoneum, which divided the organ IS
to two unequal parts, was much decay
|. and the left lobe was the largest. The OF
urth lobe in form of the transverse fis- 10 10
ire, the gall bladder lying between 1t %
id the io6ulus couddtus, was also much u
seased. \,
The entire demonstration has been =.
refully recorded for the benefit OF 81
fence, and the physicians have sent a %
mute account of it to the London Ian '"
t. Such case was never heard OF be- y
re in human history, and it shows how :. ~
nature arranges her physio- !"
gical steps SO as to get the greatest hap =
ness for man out of them.-Neso York p