Abstract
IN the same way that by the spectroscope much can be learned as to the chemical constitution and the physical changes going on in the sun, so by the sphygmograph applied to the artery at the wrist many of the most important phenomena occurring in the heart can be studied with a facility that cannot bs otherwise attained. Till the introduction of the sphygmograph of Marey the pulse was considered to be little more than a simple up and down movement, because the instruments employed to register it, such as those of Herisson, Ludwig, and Vierordt, developed so much momentum that the details of the true trace were disguised. In the instrument as at present employed, the substitution of counterbalancing springs instead of weights has so far improved its efficiency, that the pulse is now known to form a decidedly complicated curve if its movements are allowed to record themselves on a moving paper. The sphygmograph trace, as thus produced, gives indications in two directions; first, as to the action of the valves of the heart; and secondly, as to the manner in which the muscular walls of the ventricles perform their work. It is to the former of these subjects that most physiologists have directed their observations in employing the instrument; but it is to the latter, the more important of the two, that it is my intention to direct attention on the present occasion.
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The Heart and the Sphygmograph * . Nature 9, 327–328 (1874). https://doi.org/10.1038/009327a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/009327a0