ORGANS OF CIRCULATION.--The heart of all mammals is a completely four-chambered organ. In the adult heart there is no communication between the right and left halves. The auricles are comparatively thin-walled, the ventricles thick-walled, in relation to the amount of work that they have severally to perform. The right ventricle, moreover, which has only to drive the blood into the lungs, is much thinner-walled than the left ventricle, which is concerned with the entire systemic circulation. The exits of the arteries and the auriculo-ventricular orifices are guarded by valves, which are so arranged as only to permit the blood to flow in the proper direction. But these valves have a morphological as well as a physiological interest. At the origin of each artery, the aorta and the pulmonary, there is a row of three watch-pocket valves, as they have been generally termed on account of their form. These three valves meet accurately in the middle of the lumen of the arterial tube when liquid is poured into them from above, and thus completely occlude the orifice. The auriculo-ventricular valves differ in structure in the two ventricles. That of the left ventricle has only two flaps, and is therefore often spoken of as the bicuspid or mitral valve. Both these flaps are membranous, and together they completely surround the exit from the auricle into the ventricle. The edges of the valve are bound down to the parietes of the heart by numerous branching tendinous threads, the chordae tendineae, which often take their origin from pillar-like muscles arising from the walls of the heart, the so-called musculi papillares. The valve of the right ventricle is composed of three flaps, and is therefore often spoken of as the tricuspid valve; it is in the same way membranous, and has chordae tendineae and musculi papillares connected with it. The disposition of the musculi papillares and their number differ in different mammals, but no exhaustive study has as yet been made of the arrangements in different groups; the amount of individual variation even is not known, though it is certainly considerable in some cases, for {66} instance in the heart of the Rabbit. The heart of the Monotremata presents differences of some importance from those of other Mammalia; the modern knowledge of the Monotrematous heart is mainly due to Gegenbaur[33] and Lankester,[34] in whose memoirs references to the older literature will be found. The principal features of interest in which the heart of the Monotremata differs from that of the higher Mammalia are these. When the two ventricles are cut across transversely, the cavity of the right is seen to be wrapped round that of the left in a fashion precisely like that of the bird's heart; on the other hand in the higher mammal the two cavities lie side by side. The main difference between Monotremes and other Mammals concerns the right auriculo-ventricular valve. The differences which it presents from