of Edinburgh, Session 1884-85. 
323 
6. Note on the Contraction of the Auricles of the Pig’s Heart. 
By J. MacFadyean, M.B, B.Sc., M.RC.Y.S., and G. 
Sims Woodhead, M.D. 
It is a familiar fact that the heart of cold-blooded vertebrates 
may continue to heat for a long period — even for days — after its 
removal from the body, hut it is not so well known that contractions 
may occur in the heart of the higher vertebrates for a considerable 
time after death. On this latter point, however, there are many 
observations on record. Harvey noted that rhythmical contractions 
continued in the heart of the pigeon for some time after death, and, 
further, that after it had ceased to beat, it recovered its vigour, and 
both auricles and ventricles pulsated on the application of a 
stimulus, such as the tip of the finger wetted with saliva.* 
Lewes also quotes from Donders, that “ Harless observed it (the 
heart) beating in the body of a decapitated murderer one hour after 
execution. Margo found the right auricle beating two hours and a 
half after the execution, although not a trace of irritability could be 
detected in the other parts of the heart. Dietrich, Gerlach, and 
Herz found that both ventricles contracted if one was irritated forty 
minutes after death.” The same author further quotes, from Emil 
Rousseau, the case of a woman whose heart had these rhythmic 
movements seven-and-twenty hours after she had been guillotined. 
Landoisf points out that numerous observations have been made by 
Pannum, Valentin, and others during recent years on the excised 
heart of rabbits, dogs, &c., and that even so early as 300 b.c. 
movements in an excised heart had been recorded by Cleanthes. 
Our attention was specially drawn to this subject by the behaviour 
of a pig’s heart which was obtained at the Edinburgh Abattoir for 
some inoculation experiments in connection with pig typhoid. At 
10.25 a.m. the animal was killed in the way commonly practised 
by butchers, viz., by first stunning it by a blow on the cranium 
with a heavy mallet, and then by cutting across the great vessels 
at the root of the neck. It was allowed to bleed for a few 
minutes until apparently dead. The thorax was then opened, and 
* Physiology of Common Life , by G. H. Lewes, vol. i. p. 33 4. 
t A Text-book of Human Physiology, Landois and Stirling, vol. i. p. 96. 
