160 ' SEVENTH REPORT—1837. 
in contact, without pressure, no murmur was heard; but when 
the heart acted strongly, a simple impulse and sound. 
The artery was scratched for a few seconds with the point 
of a scalpel; it gradually became sensibly smaller for the length 
of half an inch about that point. A strong solution of salt being 
applied, the contraction increased, but it was still of a gradual 
and tapering kind, and the stethoscope could detect no murmur 
in it; but very slight pressure on it caused a whizzing. The 
pulse at this contracted portion was felt to be much harder and 
sharper than above or below it. Fy 
A small incision being made into the artery, a jet of blood 
issued, and a whizzing, sometimes in pulses, sometimes conti- _ 
nuous like the bruit de diable, was heard beyond the orifice, 
but not at the portion of the artery nearest to the heart, the sound 
being, as usual, carried in the direction of the current. The in- 
cision being made larger, the blood spouted to the distance of 
more than six feet, and the animal died in ten minutes after this _ 
last incision ; the beats of the heart were frequent, short, and 
pretty loud, but without a second sound, and to the last with- 
out amurmur. They continued for nearly two minutes after 
the respiration and consciousness had ceased, becoming gradu- 
ally slower. 
The Committee repeated the observation that has often been 
made before, that a murmur can easily be produced by press- 
ure on the subclavian, carotid, or femoral artery of the hu- 
man subject. This murmur is generally of a grating or filing 
character, and is prolonged in proportion tothe degree of pressure. 
Whilst making the observations on the carotids, they found 
that a continuous murmur of very remarkable and variable cha- _ 
racters could be produced by pressure on the jugular veins, espe- 
cially in the angle formed by the sterno-mastoid muscle with 
the clavicle. The most common sound thus produced was like — 
the humming of a gnat or fly ; but occasionally it resembled the — 
whistling of the wind, the singing of a kettle, the cooing of a — 
dove, and sometimes it was perfectly what the French have called — 
the “bruit de diable.”’ Dr. Ogier Ward of Birmingham had pre-_ 
viously come to the conclusion that this sound is produced in 
the jugular veins, and the observations of the Committee con- — 
firm this inference: but they do not agree with this physician — 
in the opinion, which he adopts from MM. Andral and Bouil- — 
laud, that the presence of this sound denotes a chlorotic state _ 
of the system, for which steel is indicated, or that it is essentially © 
a morbid symptom at all. It may be produced in the healthiest 
subjects by moderate pressure applied to the lower part of the 
jugular veins, and is then found to be modified by various cir- 
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