Practical manual of the diseases of the heart and great vessels ... / By F.A. Aran ... Translated from the French, by Wm. A. Harris, M.D.

  • Aran, F. A. (François Amilcar), 1817-1861.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical manual of the diseases of the heart and great vessels ... / By F.A. Aran ... Translated from the French, by Wm. A. Harris, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tirely by this ventricle, and that the impulse in this case was not wanting. But what is the immediate cause, or rather what are the essential causes of the impulse of the heart against the thoracic parietes! It has been admitted for a sufficiently long time, with Senac, that the im- pulse of the apex of the heart depended, partly, on the dilatation of the aorta and pulmonary artery, and on the straightening of the arch of the aorta ; partly on the reflux of blood, which takes place from the ventricles into the auricles, especially into the left auricle, at the moment when the auriculo- ventricular valves approach each other, which is, besides, an accessory cause of the considerable dilatation of the left auricle that lies pressed be- tween the base of the ventricles and the dorsal verte- bree. Without noticing the difficulties which would prevent our understanding how the dilatation of the arteries arising from the heart, and the straightening of their curvatures, could cause the apex of the heart to move forwards; without discussing, also, the erro- neous opinion advanced, that the aorta straightens itself during the influx of blood, since Gendrin and Carson have proved, that the curvature, instead of being diminished, is considerably augmented ; with- out dwelling longer on the fact of comparative anatomy, noticed by Haller, that among certain animals, in whom the arteries which spring from the heart present no curvature, this organ is not the less carried forwards during the systole ; it suffices, in order to show how defective is the first part of Senac’s explanation, to remark here, that the movement forwards, which the apex of the 3