90 The American Geologist. February, 1892 
go down into non-existence, I have no desire to postpone the day. For 
the world’s sake, for my name’s sake, for surviving friends’ sake, I had 
hoped to do more for humanity, more for science than I have, I seem to 
be now prepared to labor efficiently in the field of well-doing, I had 
hoped to complete my work on Natural Theology—my Geologic Ages 
and my Physiological Zoology. And then [ am half prepared to mono- 
graph the horizon of the Waverly sandstone. Would that I might be 
spared to do that. 
But there are real attractions on the other side of the dark river. I 
daily see, in imagination, my little angel trio standing hand in hand and 
i00king longingly toward the shores of earth and wondering when papa 
will come. Oh, if I could feel the firm assurance that I should meet and 
know them there, I should cast every regret aside, and joyfully, joyfully, 
await the day. It may be that I can attain to this assurance. I under- 
stand that others have enjoyed it; and I pray God his spirit may guide 
me to the same acquisition. (26 Jan., 1867.) Again he writes (Feb. 11, 
67): The other night as I was lying in bed and considering what could 
be the nature of the phenomenon, I concluded the most probable expla- 
nation is this: The spasm occurs during the time of contraction of the 
ventricles, as is shown by the suppression of the pulse, and by the failure 
of the sharp, “deep” sound caused by the closing of the mitral valves. 
It must be then that the mitral valves do not close when the ventricle 
contracts, and thus the blood from the left ventricle instead of being 
thrown into the aorta is forced back into the left auricle, meeting the 
blood just entering that auricle from the polmonary vein. This sudden 
and unusual influx of blood from both directions into the auricle pro- 
duces a concussion and distension of that auricle and possibly an un- 
usually spasmodic struggle of the whole heart. As the right auricle is 
situated near the centre of the thorax and contiguous to the stomach, 
the unusual movement which it suffers is felt by the stomach, and thus 
that organ seems illusorily to be the seat of the abnormal action as it is 
the seat of the sensation. 
But in reference to this explanation it should be marked, 1. A regurgi- 
tation of the blood into the right auricle and a prevention by this means 
of the contents of the pulmonary vein from proceeding forwards would 
result in a momentary congestion of the lungs, which should be indi- 
cated by a sense of suffocation. 2. As I have never experienced symp- 
toms of any real inflammatory action in the heart, or the region of the 
heart, and have never even suffered any pain except occasional wander- 
ing or shooting pains, which many times were seated in the muscular 
layers of the chest, I do not perceive it possible (aside from the exist- 
ence of the spasms), that any sach disease has existed in the structures 
of the heart as to cause an alteration in the constitution or efficiency of 
the valves. 5. There exists therefore room for some other explanation 
of these abnormal symptoms. At the same time irregular or intermittent 
action of the heart is caused frequently by the state of the nervous sys- 
tem; and at the same time these spasms and the pathological condition 
on which they depend, produce no perceptible influence upon my health. 
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