202 REPORT—1840.° 
intact. The oscillations were sometimes short, and rapidly 
succeeded to each other with a rhythm not differing greatly 
from that of the heart, but at other times were protracted 
through several beats of the heart, viz. an ascent continued 
for several seconds successively, followed by a descent in the 
tube of similar duration. 
S.5. The pulsation of the veins was very distinct to the 
eye in systole, in both the pulmonary veins and cava; but 
whether owing to the auricular systole exclusively, was not 
examined into with sufficient care. This much was ascertained, 
that the visible venous action was a diastole coinciding with 
the commencement of the general action of the heart, and fol- 
lowed immediately by a systole. Neither diastole nor systole 
of vein seemed gradual, but abrupt and almost instantaneous. 
S. 6. A heavy curved knife was placed on the left ventricle 
and held erect between the fingers, so as to allow motion up- 
wards or downwards, and the result was as in former experi- 
ments, an elevation by sudden heave upwards of the knife in 
systole, followed by a subsidence in diastole with depression 
of the surface. 
S. 7. The heart was cut out while still beating, and con- 
tinued to beat in the hand regularly, with normal rhythm, for 
a minute or two, and notwithstanding being shifted from hand 
to hand amongst three observers. ‘The first sound was very 
distinct during the whole of the time, but less sharply defined 
at the commencement. It wanted likewise the jerking motion 
over the auri-ventricular openings, and the strong eccentric 
impulse or upward heaving in systole, and strongly-marked 
subsidence of the ventricle in diastole. The concentric 
motions and general rounding and shortening in diastole were 
very distinct. There was no second or diastolic sound. When 
cut open, the columnz carnez were seen to act along with the 
parietes. 
OBSERVATION XXIV. 
August 26 and 28.—Repeated the experiment on the con- 
traction of the abdominal muscles, as productive of a sound 
resembling the systolic sound of the heart, in the presence of 
Dr. Edwin Harrison, Dr. Hamilton Roe, Mr. Phillips, F.R.S., 
Mr. Gulliver, F.R.S., and Dr. Robert Boyd. 
The instrument employed was the flexible ear-tube or ste- 
thoscope, with which only the experiment is satisfactorily 
practicable, on account of the strong impulse attending the 
contraction, and the difficulty of distinguishing the acoustic 
from the tactual sensations it occasions. 
