On some points connected with the circulation of the blood, arrived at from a study of the sphygmograph-trace

Abstract

Since my first communication to the Royal Society “On the relative Duration of the Component Parts of the Radial Sphygmograph-Trace in Health’ (P. R. S. vol. xviii. p. 351), it has not been my good fortune to find any similar observations by other physiologists, either in favour of or in opposition to my statements. From that time my attention has been continually directed to similar phenomena; and the employment of similar methods has led to results which seem to have an important bearing on the problem of the action of the heart. It is evident that a thorough knowledge of the nature of the pulse in the arteries, when combined with that acquaintance with the anatomical mechanism of the heart and arteries that can be arrived at from post mortem examination, is sufficient basis for a fairly thorough study of the circulation of the blood. It has been my endeavour, by the employment of the sphygmograph as constructed by M. Marey, to obtain an amount of information from the curves which it produces, sufficient to generalize on the nature of the cardiac action in some of its details which have not as yet attracted attention. The results will be stated in the form of propositions.