Excerpt from The Retrospect of Practical Medicine and Surgery, Vol. 5: Being a Half-Yearly Journal, Containing a Retrospective View of Every Discovery and Practical Improvement in the Medical Science

[We are persuaded that one reason why the physical signs of disease of the heart and lungs are so little studied by the medical practitioner, and especially by him whose ambition or pleasure in the science does not stimulate him to aim at a high standing in his profession, is the apparent complexity of the study, whereas were he in the first place to make himself master of the simple laws of sound, he would easily understand most of the sounds which arise from diseases of the heart and lungs. We are particularly pleased with Dr. Watson's lectures, as he endeavours to simplify the study of these diseases, so that the youngest or most careless practitioner may easily understand them.

Before giving our readers his simple and beautiful explanation of some of the sounds of the heart, it will be necessary to premise a few observations. In studying the diseases of the heart, we must neglect neither the general nor the physical symptoms, as the one will frequently enlighten us respecting the other. It is especially necessary for us to understand the healthy sounds of the heart before we can understand those which are morbid. It is generally known that the heart in its healthy condition ought only to be heard in the chest within a certain space, "that space in ordinary circumstances corresponds to the inferior half of the sternum, and to the cartilages of from the fourth to the seventh ribs on the left side.

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