Arhythmia of the heart : a physiological and clinical study / by K.F. Wenckebach ; translated by Thos. Snowball.

  • Wenckebach, K. F. (Karl Friedrich), 1864-1940.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Arhythmia of the heart : a physiological and clinical study / by K.F. Wenckebach ; translated by Thos. Snowball. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    to be taken as the cause of this phenomenon ? How shall we ever be able to employ a rational treatment for this abnormality of the heart's action ? Fortunately in practice we do not need to condemn ourselves to merely looking on, although we are not yet able to discover the causes of things. It is very seldom that we are able to remove the causes of disease ; in few cases can we speak of a real rational treatment. And yet with the experience that we have gained, we can often successfully remove injurious predisposing factors; we can bring favourable influences to bear on the case, and, by various measures, bring about a rapid improvement. Nevertheless we must always strive to increase our knowledge of the disease, always keeping in view the attainment of a rational form of treatment. We must endeavour in this instance, too, to discover the causes of the disease, and some possible means for its removal. We can make some progress towards this end by collecting the cases and noting the circumstances under which extra-systoles occur. Further, an attempt may be made to find out the conditions under which they can be made to disappear. Finally, analogous cases must be sought out from physiology and experimental pathology, and the phenomenon of extra-systoles split up, where possible, into its com- ponent parts by the help of these. From the clinical side valuable contributions on arhythmia of the heart, and especially on extra-systoles, have been given by Henschen,(=^^> Heubner,(*^> Ebstein, Mackenzie, Lommel,^^^) and others (to mention only the works of recent years). I myself have taken up more the physiological side of the ques- tion, and gathered together facts from this field. The results of these researches are still very indefinite; yet it is hoped that, by careful analysis of the various forms of cardiac arhythmia, we shall be able some time to arrive at more satisfactory conclusions. Extra-systoles occur at all ages, under the most varied conditions, m healthy individuals and in those seriously ill, in apparently strong persons as well as in the weak. Their frequency is no more con- nected with any particular extrinsic circumstances than with in- trmsic. Hence it is, generally speaking, impossible to determine their clinical significance or estimate their diagnostic and prognostic value. Each case must be taken on its own merits. Still the prin- cipal fact remains that extra-systoles in themselves possess no diag- nostic significance, and that no conclusion can be drawn from their t