MOTION OF THE HEART AND BLOOD 



peculiar side-wise turning toward the right ventricle 

 as if it twists slightly on itself in performing its work. 

 It is easy to see when a horse drinks that water is 

 drawn in and passed to the stomach with each gulp, 

 the movement making a sound, and the pulsation 

 may be heard and felt. So it is with each move- 

 ment of the heart when a portion of the blood 

 is transferred from the veins to the arteries, that a 

 pulse is made which may be heard in the chest.^ 



The motion of the heart, then, is of this general 

 type. The chief function of the heart is the trans- 

 mission and pumping of the blood through the arteries 

 to the extremities of the body. Thus the pulse which 

 we feel in the arteries is nothing else than the impact 

 of blood from the heart. 



Whether or not the heart, besides transferring, 

 distributing and giving motion to the blood, adds 

 anything else to it, as heat, spirits, or perfection, may 

 be discussed later and determined on other grounds. 

 It is enough now to have shown that during the heart 

 beat the blood is transferred through the ventricles 

 from the veins to the arteries, and distributed to 

 the whole body. 



This much may be generally admitted on the basis 

 of the structure of the heart and the position and 



2 One of the first observations of heart-sounds. An interpretation 

 of their significance together with clinical application was made by 

 R.-T,-H. Laennec (1781-1826) in his epochal Traite de V auscultation 

 mediate (1819). See W. H. Howell's Physiology, loth Ed., Phila., 

 I9^7> P- 557- For a history of knowledge of heart sounds, Garrison 

 refers to G. Joseph, Janus, 2: i, 345, 565, 1853. 



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