Abstract
THE sounds of the heart have always occupied the attention of physiologists both as regards their cause and as to their relations in time to other phenomena of the circulation, such as the impulse of the heart on the wall of the chest, and the pulse in arteries and other organs more or less distant from the heart. During the last few years much attention has been paid to these time-relations, and much ingenuity has been shown in devising methods by which the vibrations of those sounds, as distinct from the movements of the heart itself and the pulse in vessels, can be recorded. The older methods were subjective, and were consequently deficient in scientific accuracy. Thus, if even a skilled observer listened to the heart sounds and endeavoured to register their sequence by closing a key which acted on a recording lever, and if he endeavoured thus to register the moment of the occurrence of the first or second sound, or both, there was the inertia of the apparatus and the possibility of personal error, which made the observations of little value. It was desirable to have objective methods by which the vibrations could be actually recorded, and when one listens with the stethoscope to the strangely muffled sounds, one realises that to record the vibrations of such sounds is a remarkable achievement. At all events, the beginning and the end of the sounds can now be recorded.
Article PDF
References
Phono-Kardiogramme von Prof. Otto Weiss . (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1909.) From Prof. E. Gaupp and Prof. W. Nagel's Sammlung Anatomischer und Physiologischer Vortrage und Aufsatze. Heft 7. A full bibliography will be found in Prof. Weiss's paper. Pp. 37. Price 1.50 marks.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
MCKENDRICK, J. The Sounds of the Heart 1 . Nature 83, 38–39 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/083038a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/083038a0