The sphygmograph and the physiology of the circulation : a monograph read before the Medical Society of New Jersey, upon investigations made preparatory to a larger work on the practical value of the sphygmograph / by Edgar Holden.

  • Holden, Edgar, 1838-1909.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sphygmograph and the physiology of the circulation : a monograph read before the Medical Society of New Jersey, upon investigations made preparatory to a larger work on the practical value of the sphygmograph / by Edgar Holden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    total carrying power of the remaining branches does not very materially differ from that of the principal vessel, there is*no perceptible change ; but as this diminishes, the relative tension of the larger tube increases, and the collapse succeeding each impulse becomes less; thus, what in speaking of arteries is termed compressibility, is diminished. With the human circulatory apparatus this tension of the arteries necessarily supposes a corresponding want of fullness of the veins, and the tracing exhibits characteristics similar to that already given for carditis. But not to go farther in this direction, let us inquire into the changes produced in certain familiar pathological states: 1st.— Tricuspid Regurgitation. It is well known that where this morbid condition exists, a visible pulsation of the jugulars occurs; not always or often regular, and pulse like, but tremulous and variable, and indi- cating two things in regard to the blood current. 1st—An intermission of impulse or almost an absence of impetus at the venous and distal end of the circuit; and, 2nd, a retarda- tion of capillary venous circulation, sufficient to prevent full- ness of the large veins. To ascertain what should be the character of the sphygmographic tracing in this variety of disease, let us analyze the condition that exists. 1st.—As the right ventricle forces the blood into the lungs, a regurgitation into the auricle would produce the same want of vigor of im-