From A. H. Garrod to Francis Darwin 30 June [1872]1
11, Harley Street, | Cavendish Square, W.
June 30th.
Dear Darwin
I made an attempt this morning to take a sphygmograph tracing during fright, & fear that I have not been very successful. At the Hospital the house-physician & I went to a woman, Abt 30, & commenced putting on the sphygmograph,2 & when quite ready asked her if she minded being hurt a little, upon which she, being rather of a nervous temperament, jumped up & said she would have nothing done to her at all & wanted to dress & leave immediately. She was very much terrified & it was with great difficulty that we could get her quiet enough to take a trace & we only did so by telling her I did not mean to hurt her at all. At last, she still being very excited & frightened, we took the lower trace & after about 10 minutes the two upper ones. She did not quiet down for some time afterwards & then remained suspiciously nervous, so that it was not possible to take a normal trace. The pulse did not become much increased in rapidity after the fright, being nearly 100 a minute before the fright & but little more during it. On the whole I think that little or nothing can be learnt from the trace.
I have been looking up any points that seem to bear on the point your father is working at & think that the following two may be of use.3
I. In P. Lorain’s work on the pulse there are some normal sphygmograms of a woman (p. 193. p. 194) & on p. 194 is one of the same woman in a rage. It is very different to the others & much quicker.4
II. In a paper by L. Lortet of Lyons in the Annales des Sciences Nat. Sci. 5. Tom VII. p296 & seq. the wonderful increase in the rapidity of the blood current on a horse scenting food & commencing to eat is shown diagrammatically in a most excellent manner, & this increase in blood current may assist in the increased glandular action necessary for the digestion of the food. There are other kindred points of interest in the same paper.5
I shall be very happy to lend you Lorain’s book if it is of any service to you.
Upon my theory of pulse rate, the only way that fright &c can influence the circulation for good is by its influence on the pneumogastric nerve, which thus indirectly alters the calibre of the coronary small arteries & so modifies the nutrition of the heart.6
I have not yet had any ruminant dead, so have not yet got any lig. nuchae for you, but I have not forgotten it.7
Hoping to see you when you have any spare time | Believe me | Yours very truly | A. H. Garrod
Footnotes
Summary
Sends an account of an attempt to take a sphygmograph tracing of a woman during fright
and some references that might apply to CD’s work on pulse rates during rage and fright.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8399
- From
- Alfred Henry Garrod
- To
- Francis Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Harley St, 11
- Source of text
- DAR 165: 10
- Physical description
- 4pp †(by CD)
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8399,” accessed on 27 June 2019, http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/DCP-LETT-8399
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 20
