First principles of medicine / By Archibald Billing.

  • Archibald Billing
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First principles of medicine / By Archibald Billing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/142 (page 12)
    refill itself, sucking in the blood as it were, and one proof is brought forward from the heart of large mam- malia, as the horse, ox, or whale, which affords the phcenomenon of contracting and expanding after re- moval from the body; but the expansion is simple relaxation, as when after the fist has been shut with an effort, upon the relaxation of the flexor muscles it will be seen to expand slightly without any action of the extensors; and when a large heart is relaxing, if the hands be pressed on opposite sides of it they will be sensible of an apparently active expansion from the mere gravitating recovery of position of such a mass of matter. The heart, in fact, not opening, but falling open after each contraction. It will be shown now, how the blood fills the right auricle which being flaccid is easily distended, but it requires the muscular action of the auricle in addition - to fill out the ventricle, which is the use of the auricle ; nil frustra natura (Deus) facit. It is the constant pres- sure and equable stream which refills and distends the right auricle of the heart after each contraction, not any suction (to use a vulgar expression) of the heart, or suction of the chest, as has been attempted to be proved; -no effect of vacuum and atmospheric pressure; there is no suction (no atmospheric pressure) during natural the driving of a wedge, forcing against the ribs. Now these actions may be very forcible, but if they be too rapid, there is not time for the heart to receive the usual quantity, so that only a little being sent into the arteries at each contraction, the pulse may be small, when the heart is acting strongly, as in palpitations, and an ignorance of this fact might lead to the administration of stimulants when not required (to say the least), if the pulse alone were consulted ; ceteris paribus impulsion is increased by hypertrophy, diminished by dilatation.