A brief account of facts with regard to certain researches on the heart, in reply to statements in a memoir of Dr. Hope.

  • Williams, Charles J. B. (Charles James Blasius), 1805-1889.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A brief account of facts with regard to certain researches on the heart, in reply to statements in a memoir of Dr. Hope. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    by describing the experiments as mine, or performed by myself, with the assistance of I)r. Hope and others. It appears, that Dr. Hope founded his claim to these experiments on his having “ invented ” a mode of performing them, and having committed to writing certain propositions descriptive of this mode. But even on this ground of claim, he overlooked the prior contributions to this invention in my appendix, pub- lished more than a year before : and it did not occur to him that I could not be about to perform the expe- riments in Edinburgh, without having devised some plan to be pursued, which was nearly a month before he is said to have “ invented ” his mode of experiment. Yet to avoid even the chance of not acknowledging every particular of aid derived from him, I inserted the clause quoted above, p. 11,—“I was present at an ex- periment attempted by Dr. Hope,” &c. My experiments were conducted without reference to Dr. Hope’s propositions, but with the direct object of deciding between the views stated in my appendix. I only made a few memoranda to guide us, which I have preserved, as I wrote them before making the experiment. They are authenticated by two slight verbal alterations in Dr. Hope’s handwriting. Experiment I. — To determine the situation and cause of the second sound. Lay open the pericardium to the base. 1. Try, by the stethoscope, where the second sound is loudest, at the mouths of the arteries or at the heart. 2. Try if pressure on the arteries at the moment of each systole will stop the second sound. 3. Try if pressure on the auricles just before each systole will stop the second sound. 4. Examine anatomy of the valves preparatory to Experiment II. Experiment II. — To determine the situation and cause of the second sound. 1. Pass the curved awl into the aorta, and draw back the aortic valves. Observe if this stops the second sound.