Studies on the Pathological Physiology of the Heart

I. PREVIOUS EXPERIMENTAL WORK Since Corrigan,1in 1832, first described and gave a logical explanation of the collapsing pulse often associated with aortic incompetency, clinicians and physiologists alike have given their interpretations of the circulatory changes inaugurated by a leakage of the aortic valves. In this, as in other provinces of medicine, it is important to differentiate between demonstrated facts and convenient assumptions to explain clinical observations. It is but natural, therefore, that the subject should have been the cause of considerable experimental investigation. In 1878, Rosenbach2punctured the aortic valves in rabbits by a glass rod introduced through the right carotid. This caused no variation of mean arterial pressure. Cohnheim3confirmed this result but Goddard4obtained a fall of mean arterial pressure. De Jager,5in 1883, obtained no variation after puncturing the valve segments in dogs, but in rabbits he