178 REPORT—1840. 
pushed by a cord or membrane stretched obliquely across the 
passage, and brought suddenly to a state of tension; and at 
the same time the sensation of jerking upwards was much less 
distinct when a finger was placed over the valve externally. 
The probe also, when held loosely in the orifice (enveloped, 
like the finger, in the inverted appendix of the auricle), was 
felt and seen to be pushed back in each systole between the 
fingers. 
S. 5. At the moment of introducing the inverted appendix 
into the internal opening, the sharp well-defined beginning 
of the first or systolic sound was wanting or obscure; and 
that sound seemed to several observers less abrupt and more 
gradual in its development. 
OsseErvATION II. 
June 13th.—Subject, a stout Ass two to three months 
old. Phanomena: Abnormal murmurs, without structural 
defect ;—motions of the ventricle in systole, as apparent to the 
eye and hand ;—same of the auricles ;—rhythm of the motions 
of auricles and ventricles ;—auricular hemorrhage not sus- 
pended in diastole, and augmented in systole of auricle. 
S. 1. Heart acting normally and vigorously before the in- 
jection of woorara. Immediately after the operation was com- 
pleted, a murmur was observed with the second or diastolic 
sound, with a slow cardiac action; the first or systolic sound 
being normal. 
S. 2. In systole, motion first distinctly observed at the 
fundus, especially on the right ventricle, where any phzeno- 
mena about the arterial orifice are most easily observed in 
animals lying on the right side; apex almost simultaneously 
moved with fundus. ‘These systolic motions in the ventricles 
were preceded by a dimpling and shrinking inwards and 
downwards of the auricular appendices, but by a very minute 
interval, so that the auricular motion seemed as it were but 
the first portion of a more extensive movement affecting the 
whole heart. 
S. 3. Before opening the pericardium, needles were passed 
horizontally through that organ without wounding the heart, 
and so that they lay exposed to the eye in their whole length, 
except the minute portion actually penetrating the pericar- 
dium, and over the following points,—viz. over the auricle, over 
the periphery of the mitral orifice, and over the apex; and 
observation was made through a roll of paper employed to 
limit the field of vision, and a succession of motions was di- 
stinctly noted; first, about the fundus and insertions of the 
