The left ventricle being thus dilated, the mitral valves will not be able to completely cover its orifice, and part of the blood will escape from the ventricle, when it contracts, into the auricle when dilated with the blood from the lungs; and this undue quantity of blood will gradually enlarge the auricle. A resistance will arise, from the same cause, to the passage of the blood from the lungs, thence to that from the right ventricle and auricle, and thus these cavities may become enlarged in their turns. When an ossification of the aorta, or of its valves, exists, there will be a resistance to the passage of the blood from the left ventricle, either by a loss of dilatability in the artery, or a contraction of the orifice by the ossified parts. In either case, the blood will reflow upon the heart, and dilate the left ventricle, as in _case the first_, and others; and, if the mitral valves be thickened and rigid, the left auricle will be more dilated than in a case of simple aneurism of the left ventricle, as appeared also in the _first case_. The coronary arteries, at their origin from the aorta, and a considerable distance beyond, were ossified. How far does the existence of this ossification in this and other cases related by different authors, without symptoms of angina pectoris, disprove the opinion that it is the cause of that disease? The abdomen being opened, the organs generally appeared sound, except the liver, which had its tunic inflamed, its substance indurated and filled with blood. The vestiges of inflammation in the coat of the liver were traced in every instance already related, while at the same time the liver, in all, appeared shrunken. The diminution of size in the liver, after death, cannot at present be well explained; for it is very certain that such a diminution is not an attendant of this disorder, during most of its stages, but that on the contrary a state exists precisely opposed to it. The indications of distention of the liver, clearly perceived in some cases, have been pain, tenderness, and sense of distention, in the right hypochondrium, and, what is less equivocal than these, very considerable swelling and prominence of the liver. The inflammation of its tunic is an effect of this distention and of the consequent pressure against the adjacent parts.