1086 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
Chauveau (8) recorded a case, and reproduced tracings which 
indicate that while the left ventricle contracted at the rate of 
21 to 24 beats per minute, the left auricle contracted 60 to 65 
times per minute, and that there was complete dissociation of the 
ventricular rhythm from the auricular. Chauveau was not able to 
obtain a tracing from the jugular pulsations, hut he observed that 
they had the same rhythm as the auricular waves seen in the tracing 
taken from the cardiac impulse. The two auricles, therefore, beat 
at the same rate. 
W. His, jun. (9), recording a case of the Adams-Stokes syndrome, 
reproduced tracings which show that the jugular pulsations were 
three or four times (sometimes ten times) more frequent than 
the infrequent arterial pulse, and that the right auricle and left 
ventricle beat in dissimilar rhythm. 
In Mackenzie’s cases (1), (10), the condition of complete heart- 
block is conclusively proved. The ventricles contracted simul- 
taneously at the rate of 30 to 32 beats per minute, and some of 
the tracings demonstrate that the two auricles contracted synchron- 
ously about 60 times per minute. 
D. Gerhardt (11) interprets the imperfect tracings from the case 
he records as indicating complete heart-block. 
In the three cases recorded by Gibson (12), the complete heart- 
block is proved by a number of tracings. 
' In the record of Joseph Erlanger’s case (13), no tracings are 
reproduced. The heart-block was at most times complete, “ the 
ventricular rhythm being totally independent of the rhythm of the 
venous end of the heart. In one determination the rate of ventri- 
cular beats was 27'6 per minute, of auricular beats 98 per 
minute.” 
H. E. Hering (3) refers to two cases he has observed but not 
yet published, and he also describes complete heart-block in a 
human heart restored to functional activity eleven hours after 
death.* 
The case I have had under observation is that of a man, fifty-five 
years of age, who has complained of dyspnoea and occasional 
* J. Rihl ( Zeitschr . /. exper. Path. u. Therap ., 1905, Bd. ii. S. 83) has 
recently recorded two cases ; and John Hay ( British Med. Jour. 1905, ii. 
p. 1034) also records a case. 
