THE HEART 127 



with sensibility, except, perhaps, to states of abnormal 

 tension within its cavities. The insensibility of the 

 heart was first demonstrated by Harvey in the case of 

 the son of Viscount Montgomery, whose heart had been 

 exposed by destructive ulceration of the overlying chest 

 walL Harvey related as follows* : 



' I found a large open space in the chest, into which 

 I could readily introduce three of my fingers and my 

 thumb : which done, I straightway perceived a certain 

 protuberant fleshy part, affected with an alternating 

 extrusive and intrusive movement ; this part I touched 

 gently. Amazed with the novelty of such a state, I 

 examined everything again and again, and when I had 

 satisfied myself, I saw that it was a case of old and 

 extensive ulcer, beyond the reach of art, but brought 

 by a miracle to a kind of cure, the interior being in- 

 vested with a membrane and the edges protected with 

 a tough skin. But the fleshy part (which I at first sight 

 took for a mass of granulations, and others had always 

 regarded as a portion of the lung), from its pulsating 

 motions and the rhythm they observed with the pulse 

 ... I saw was no portion of the lung . . . but the 

 apex of the heart ! covered over with a layer of fungous 

 flesh by way of external defence, as commonly happens 

 in old foul ulcers. The servant of this young man was 

 in the habit daily of cleansing the cavity from its accu- 

 mulated sordes by means of injections of tepid water, 

 after which the plate was applied, and with this in its 

 place the young man felt adequate to any exercise or 



* William Harvey, Collected Works (Sydenham Soc., 1847), on 

 Generation, p. 383. 



