Experiments and observations on the sounds of the heart / by Robert Spittal.
- Spittal Robert.
- Date:
- [1836?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Experiments and observations on the sounds of the heart / by Robert Spittal. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![tracted,—on the internal surface of the chest underneath tlie wa- ter, and opposite the instrument. At each approximation of the finger to the parietes a sound was produced; as also on the act of separation, and simultaneous with it, a second sound was heard. In this instance the sounds were more subdued than in those in which the thorax contained air, and, in this res];ect, seemed to resemble still more those of the hving heart; and, as was mentioned in the first experiment, the sound produced by the stroke was louder according to the strength of the impulse of the finger; but so little was required for the production of the sounds, that the mere quick approximation of the point of the finger to the thoracic parietes was sufficient for the development of the first sound; while the second appeared to owe its exist- ence to the act of separation performed in the same rapid man- ner. Indeed, the intensity of the sounds seemed to depend more upon this than on the strength of the impulse. Exp. 6.—Lest the peculiar structure of the point of the fin- ger might have had any influence on the effects produced, that organ was in several instances covered with a portion of the membrane of the pleura, and in this condition most of the fore- going experiments were repeated with similar results. In the course of these observations on the human body, it was noticed that percussion on the intercostal spaces produced louder sounds than when this was performed on the ribs, when, however, the sounds seemed sharper. In detailing these experiments, nothing is farther from my in- tention than to advance them as proving, that either of the sounds ot the living heart, in health, are exclusively owing to the causes mentioned, as capable of giving rise to sounds of a somewhat si- milar character in the dead body; and, whether the latter have any share m the production of the former, may perhaps be de- duced from the following observations, taken in connection with the foregoing experiments. The first point in the inquiry demanding our attention, is contained m the following query : Does the heart during its ac- tion strike against the parietes of the thorax ? Now, there is no diHicu ty m answering this question, as almost every writer on the .sul;ject admits, that during the contraction of the ventricles, the heart comes suddenly in contact with the parietes of the < Chest; and this is generally said to take place in the human body between the cartilages of the fifth and seventh left ribs, and is al- lowed to be the cause of the impulse perceived in that region. To ltv!l rV admitted, but that the impulse is be- I nf ZVr! ^^y energetic, we may quote the observations ^nlfr . 5f p '^ distinguished and most recent authors on the ^ subject before us. Dr Hope informs us, that during the con-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21730702_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
