_Heart._--Originally a simple tube curved into a somewhat S-shape, the
heart, by enlargements, constrictions and fusions of its parts, becomes
converted into the complex, compact heart of the adult. In this we
recognize the following portions--(1) _Sinus venosus_, (2) _Atrium_, (3)
_Ventricle_. A fourth chamber, the _conus arteriosus_, the enlarged and
contractile hinder end of the ventral aorta, is also physiologically a
part of the heart. The sinus venosus receives the blood from the great
veins (ductus Cuvieri and hepatic veins). It--like the atrium which it
enters by an opening guarded by two lateral valves--has thin though
contractile walls. The atrium is as a rule single, but in the Dipnoans,
in correlation with the importance of their pulmonary breathing, it is
incompletely divided into a right and a left auricle. In Neoceratodus
the incomplete division is effected by the presence of a longitudinal
shelf projecting into the atrial cavity from its posterior wall. The
opening of the sinus venosus is to the right of this shell, that of the
pulmonary vein to the left. In _Prototerus_ and _Lepidosiren_ a nearly
complete septum is formed by the fusion of trabeculae, there being only
a minute opening in it posteriorly. The atrium opens by a wide opening
guarded by two or more flap valves provided with chordae tendineae into
the ventricle.
The ventricle, in correspondence with it being the main pumping
apparatus, has its walls much thickened by the development of muscular
trabeculae which, in the lower forms separated by wide spaces in which
most of the blood is contained, become in the Teleostomes so enlarged as
to give the wall a compact character, the spaces being reduced to small
scattered openings on its inner surface. In the Dipnoans the ventricle,
like the atrium, is incompletely divided into a right and left
ventricle. In _Ceratodus_ this is effected by an extension of the
interauricular shelf into the ventricle. In _Lepidosiren_ the separation
of the two ventricles is complete but for a small perforation
anteriorly, the heart in this respect showing a closer approximation to
the condition in the higher vertebrates than is found in any Amphibians
or in any reptiles except the Crocodilia. The conus arteriosus is of
interest from the valvular arrangements in its interior to prevent
regurgitation of blood from ventral aorta into ventricle. In their
simplest condition, as seen e.g. in an embryonic Selachian, these
arrangements consist of three, four or more prominent longitudinal
ridges projecting into the lumen of the conus, and serving to obliterate
the lumen when jammed together by the systole of the conus. As
development goes on each of these ridges becomes segmented into a row of
pocket valves with their openings directed anteriorly so that
regurgitation causes them to open out and occlude the lumen by their
free edges meeting. Amongst the Teleostomes the lower ganoids show a
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