476 C. R. BARDEEN 



iired the pressure of the fluid in the heart at the time of em- 

 balming but it is probably considerably higher than the pressure 

 in the heart during life at the beginning of systole. When the 

 injection is completed both the right and left sides of the heart are 

 probably as a rule more distended than is normal during life ; the 

 right as a result of natural factors active just before and follow- 

 ing death, the left as a result of the pressure of the embalming 

 fluid. The embalming fluid causes some shrinkage. The end 

 result appears to be in many cases a heart having approximately 

 the size of the living heart in diastole during bodily rest. The 

 dilatation of the various chambers is probably seldom quite the 

 same in the cadaver heart as in the living but the heart as a 

 whole frequently appears not dissimilar in outline. If there has 

 been an antemortem acute dilatation of the heart or if the em- 

 balming fluid causes unusual distention we may have a heart 

 large in proportion to the weight of its component tissue. If 

 less blood than usual is sent into the right side of the heart before 

 death or if the distention of the heart by the embalming fluid is 

 less than usual or the shrinkage greater the size of the heart in 

 relation to the weight of its component tissue is relatively small. 



The table shows that no clear relation exists between the 

 weight of the heart compared to the weight of the body and the 

 cadaver size of the heart compared with the weight of the empty 

 heart. 



The best estimate which we can make of the ratio of heart 

 substance to heart content is on the one hand from the heart- 

 weight-body weight ratio based on post mortem studies, on the 

 other hand from the heart-silhouette area-body- weight ratio 

 based on x-ray studies of the living. But it is of interest to see 

 how closely the estimates thus made are approached by direct 

 studies on the hearts of embalmed cadavers as shown in table 19. 



e. Ventricular output 



The chief interest in arriving at an approximate knowledge of 

 heart content in diastole is in relation to the systolic output of 

 the heart. Various methods have been used to determine the 



