Researches on the Action and Sound of the Heart

Researches On The Action And Sounds Of The Heart by George Paton, M.D. is a 1873 physiological monograph that gathers a long program of animal experiments to explain how the heart works beyond the then prevailing views. In the Preface Paton notes that earlier papers in the British Medical Journal and the Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science have been revised and enlarged into a distinct treatise. The book argues that ventricular diastole is not merely an interval after contraction, but can be a continuous act whose dynamics change with the velocity of circulation. Through careful observations in turtles, frogs, fish, and warm-blooded animals, Paton shows that the auricles and ventricle interact so that, as heart rate rises, diastole becomes synchronized with auricular contraction and ventricular dilatation, enabling the ventricle to distend and then contract with increasing rapidity. A central claim is that the auricles exert a direct influence on the ventricle throughout diastole, thereby regulating the heart’s action. The work also presents a detailed treatment of the sounds of the heart, arguing that the first sound arises from ventricular contraction and arterial impulse, while the second sound follows from the forceful contraction of the auricles into the ventricle. Using denuded hearts and stethoscopic observation, Paton challenges contemporary theories, notably Hope, and discusses murmurs in disease. The volume thus combines a theory of cardiac mechanics with meticulous empirical demonstrations and a sustained critique of prevailing interpretations of the heart’s sounds.