Publisher's Synopsis
The graphic method of studying the heart's action described by this author includes the use. in addition to the well-known sphygmograph, of the cardiograph, which records the mechanical displacement of the heart in relation to the chest wall, and the phlebograph, which traces the variations in volume of the veins of the neck by taking simultaneous tracings of the venous and arterial pulses and the apex beat, it is obvious that their comparison must afford information that the sphygmograph alone could not give. The vagaries of the heart are then full of interest; they can be intelligently studied and their full import comprehended.
-The American Journal of Clinical Medicine, Volume 28 [1921]
As Hay points out in this volume, the careful clinician of to-day Is no longer satisfied with merely recognizing the presence and nature of a cardiac lesion. He tends to lay less stress on the character of the organic lesion and more on the determination of the " area of cardiac response." The important question to decide in any case is, after all, not what the pathological anatomy of the heart is, but what it Is doing, and what it is able to do. In the solution of the problem of functional diagnosis, the adoption of graphic methods for registering the movements of auricles and ventricles, as they are evidenced in the arteries and veins, has proved of great value. Within the last few years the new methods have been widely adopted, and they are now recognized as having a very distinct value and interest. While there are many men actively engaged in doing cardiographic work, there Is a much larger number, who, unable to take it up practically, desire to get a general idea of the subject. One of the difficulties which has hitherto confronted the beginner in the study of this new field of diagnosis has been the inability to obtain any single article or book which puts the whole subject before him in a simple, comprehensive manner, and within a moderate space. The want of an elementary handbook in the study of graphic methods in heart disease, Dr. Hay has most successfully filled. In small compass, and in a most readable style he has brought together the essentials of the subject so that it is possible for anyone to obtain a good, general understanding of it. For those who desire to go deeper, and to do cardiographic work themselves, the book will serve as a foundation, and will prove of constant value for reference. The first two chapters give some of the more important points in cardiac anatomy and physiology. The third chapter describes some of the commoner forms of instruments. The rest of the volume is taken up with explanations of normal tracings, and of tracings representing the various types of functional disturbance. There are numerous illustrations of excellent cardiographic records. One might, perhaps, desire more references to the works of other authors, but these have evidently been purposely omitted with a view to keeping the book as simple as possible.
-Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Volume 20 [1909]
