204 REPORT—1840. 
order, viz. the auricular diastole coinciding with the ventri- 
cular systole, and continuing after it; the true Rest or pause 
being constituted by the diastole of the auricles and ventricles 
together, and in reality ceasing on the recurrence of the auri- 
cular systole. This rhythm of the motions seems to be uni- 
versal and common to cold- and warm-blooded animals. The 
only exception known to the Reporter from books or observa- 
tion, seems apparent rather than real, viz. an alternation of 
action, such as noted by Lancisi, for example, in the chick in 
ovo, and by several observers in cases of very rapid cardiac 
action. In such cases the diastoles have been so hurried and 
short, (owing no doubt to very rapid and copious influx from 
the veins,) that the systoles have been approximated to each 
other, and the intervening Rests have been apparently sup- 
pressed, and an apparent true alternation of systoles and dia- 
stoles without intervening Rest has been produced. 
2nd. That the visible systolic and diastolic motions are first 
perceived at the bases or fixed parts of the cavities, viz. in 
the auricles at the sinuses, and in the ventricles at the fundus 
cordis; and that the apices of the auricles and ventricles (or 
free parts) are brought into full action after the other parts, 
and only just before the supervention of the opposite and next 
succeeding condition of the cavities, whether that condition be 
systole or diastole. 
3rd. That in systole the heart is diminished in all directions 
(except only in such regions, or parts of the organ, as may 
have been previously collapsed or compressed during the un- 
resisting flaccidity of the diastole), and that its long axis in 
particular is strikingly and invariably shortened. 
4th. That the normal systole of the auricles is energetic 
and almost instantaneous, and quite universal, the manifesta- 
tions of contraction in the appendix succeeding to those of 
contraction in the sinus, by a very minute interval; and that 
the auricular diastole is gradual, continuous, and wholly pas- 
sive, and is effected by an influx of blood from the cava pro- 
gressively distending the cavity from sinus to apex, and from 
the termination of one systole of the cavity to the commence- 
ment of the succeeding one. 
5th. That the systole of the ventricles is gradual in its 
development, and complex in its phenomena; that those phe- 
nomena are partly attributable to contraction in the muscular 
parietes, and partly to resistance on the part of the fluids. 
By the muscular contraction the heart is made to compress 
the blood, which resists in all directions alike, and thrusts out 
