SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS. 



Abstracts of Communications. 

 Fifty-eighth meeting. 



University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College, April 15, 1Q14. 

 Vice-President Gies in the chair. 

 65 (882) 



The influence of the diaphragm descent on the movements of the 



heart. 



By Carl J. Wiggers. 



[From the Physiological Laboratory of Cornell University Medical 

 College, New York City.} 



If the upper three fourths of the sternum, together with the 

 corresponding ribs are resected, so that the heart remains intact 

 within the pericardium attached to the diaphragm and, in addi- 

 tion, the severed sternopericardial bands are fastened to a wire 

 substituted for the sternum, the movements of the heart corre- 

 spond to those within the closed chest. The base descends, the 

 apex rotates anteriorly and in so doing moves downward slightly. 

 In such experiments the effect of diaphragm descent may be pro- 

 duced by discontinuing artificial respiration with the lungs in a 

 state of partial inflation, in which event the animal resumes 

 natural breathing. The phrenic nerves may also be stimulated 

 during periods of apnea vera. 



By attaching strings to four or five separate points of the 

 heart, large vessels and diaphragm and connecting them to 

 receiving tambours which in turn transmitted their pulsations to 

 recording tambours, it was possible to determine the effect of 

 diaphragmatic traction graphically. The following observations 

 were made. 



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