PAROXYSMAL TACHYCARDIA; AeTIOLOGY AND PROGNOSIS OF ONE HUNDRED CASES

The early papers on paroxysmal tachycardia gave its essential features with great accuracy, and the modern reader will enjoy their lucid descriptions. After the classic account by Cotton (1867) with pulse tracings by the great Burdon-Sanderson, many cases were reported, and Bristowe (1887) and Bouveret (1889) collected these and added more of their own. Bristowe's paper was " On recurrent palpitations of extreme rapidity in persons otherwise apparently healthy" and Bouveret first introduced the modern name in " De la Tachycardie essentielle paroxystique" ; he stressed that it did not produce organic heart disease, but thought it a serious malady, and as he recorded a fatal outcome in many of the longer attacks he may be responsible for the guarded prognosis often given in books. A few of these attacks were perhaps paroxysmal flutter, but with this exception the papers just quoted might still be read as accurate accounts of much of our clinical knowledge. Herringham (1897) emphasized that paroxysms often started in childhood and that the patient lived to a good age. Hoffmann (1900) wrote a book analysing 135 reported cases.