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.

    4/16
    notice of Dr. Williams.”—Transl. of Laennec, third edition, 1829, p. 559. Soon afterwards, I found that Dr. Hope was pur- suing the subject of diseases of the heart ; and there- fore, except in clinical study, I did not then prosecute it further : only at the request of Dr. Hope, I assisted at some of his experiments (Aug. 10, 1831), and revised the manuscript of his work before it was printed in November 1831. By his express desire, I wrote a review of Dr. Hope’s work, which appeared in the London Medical and Physical Journal for December 1831 and January 1832. In this review, I pointed out certain defective points in the experiments and views with regard to the sounds of the heart. “ We do not think that Dr. Hope has completely established these points, as far as relates to the physical causes of the sound.” (Then follows a discussion as to the cause of the first sound.) And, in conclusion :—“ This matter is, therefore, still open to discussion,” &c.—Loud. Med. and Phys. Jour- nal, Dec. 1831, p. 518. Nearly two years elapsed without anything further being attempted by Dr. Hope in the way of experi- mental investigation, although extended observation had more convinced me that it was needed. In Sep- tember 1833, I appended to a second edition of the Rational Exposition, a summary of the chief views which had been broached on the subject of the motions and sounds of the heart, with a discussion as to their several merits and defects, a selection of the most tenable of these views, and suggestions for bringing them to the test of further experiment. To show how this appendix paved the way for the experiments, I will quote a few passages. “ I have added an appendix, in which are discussed various unsettled points connected with the ausculta- tion of the heart, more with a view to guide future inquiries, than to settle the matter by argument.”— Preface to Second Edition of my Rational Exposition, Sept. 1833.