The Veins Of The Heart are the greater and lesser coronary : the greater coronary vein commences at the apex of the heart, and ascends, under the name of the anterior coronary vein, through the anterior fissure, gradually increasing in size: having arrived at the base of the ventricles, it quits the coronary artery, and turns off at a right angle to the left side. In this manner it gets into the groove which separates the left auricle from the left ventricle, and having thus arrived at the inferior surface of the heart, it opens into the posterior inferior part of the right auricle, as already described. Immediately before its termination, this vein presents a remarkable ampulla or dilatation. In the ascending part of its course it receives branches from the septum ventriculorum, and from the right and left ventricles; and during its transverse direction it receives descending branches from the auricle, and ascending and larger branches from the ventricle, one of which runs along the left margin of the heart. In its ampulla we usually find terminating, the posterior coronary vein that ascends through the posterior inter-ventricular fissure, and another that crosses from right to left between the right auricle and right ventricle. This vein has no valves, except the lesser Eustachian valve, already described as situated at its opening into the right auricle.

The lesser coronary veins open separately into the inferior part of the right auricle : among them we need only notice a small one that descends from the infundibulum of the right ventricle, and another the vena Galeni, which ascends along the anterior margin of the heart.

The coronary vein has been seen to enter into the left auricle;* and Lecat relates a case in which it opened into the left subclavian vein."†