Heart disease and thoracic aneurysm / by F.J. Poynton.

Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Heart disease and thoracic aneurysm / by F.J. Poynton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The front of the heart is ahnost entirely represented by the right auricle and ventricle, a small strip only of the left ventricle appearing upon the extreme left. The position of the pulmonary conus of the right ventricle is sometimes not thoroughly realized, and the left auricle thought to lie more in front than is actually the case. The following surface-marking is useful. A line drawn from the sixth right chondro-sternal junction, upward to the third costal cartilage on ihe left side, marks the furrow between the right ventricle and right auricle and thus acts as a guide to the pulmonary conus. The base of the heart posteriorly, corresponds to the space between two lines drawn at the level of the sixth and eighth dorsal vertebrae. 2. THE ANATOMY OP THE PERICARDIUM Such details only are considered as have close bearing upon the subject of heart disease. The Pericardium. This sac is conical in shape with its base firmly attached to the central tendon of the diaphragm. Above, the fibrous layer is prolonged on to the large vessels and is lost in their outer coats. The pulmonary artery and aorta where they are united are entirely enveloped by the pericardium. This relation is important in the study of aneurysm of the aorta, for aneurysms of the intrapericardial part, enclosed as they are in the sac, cannot reach a large size. The pericardium forms but a loose,investment, and when there is inflammation and exudation into the cavity the roomy spaces around the heart become distended. The pericardium then bulges out into two pockets beyond the B 2