The Heart as a Power-Chamber: a Contribution to Cardio-Dynamics

Abstract

IF we compare the text-books of physiology of to-day with those of twenty years ago, we cannot fail to be impressed, not only with the vast strides that have been made by the subject within this short time, but also with the fact that a large majority of the latest discoveries, which have an intimate bearing on the understanding and control of disease, could not figure at all in the physiological equipment of the men who studied medicine at that time and are now in the full tide of practice. Even the professional physiologist finds it difficult to keep himself abreast of the course of discovery in his own subject. It would seem, therefore, almost impossible to expect a man in a busy practice to appreciate what recent physiology has done and is doing for his science and for his craft. Many men, and those not the least successful, do. not attempt the task, and trust to their craftsmanship and their powers of naming a diseased condition, that is, of placing it in a category familiar to them which they therefore believe they understand, and to their experience in treating such cases without, at any rate, harming the patient.

The Heart as a Power-Chamber: a Contribution to Cardio-Dynamics.

By Dr. Harrington Sainsbury. (Oxford Medical Publications.) Pp. xii + 248. (London: Henry Frowde and Hodder and Stoughton, 1922.) 12s. 6d. net.