Abstract
IT IS the purpose of this paper to describe the behavior of the human heart during death as reflected in the electrocardiogram and to discuss certain features of this behavior, particularly as they relate to resuscitative attempts. The ancients believed that the heart was the last organ to die. Galen, as cited by Harvey, 1 stated that the order of death in the heart itself was cessation first of the left ventricle, then of the left auricle, then of the right ventricle, and finally of the right auricle. Harvey 1 extended these observations and concluded that the auricles were the primum vivens, ultimum moriens —the first part to live (in the embryo), the last to die. In this connection he mentioned the occasional occurrence of ventricular contractions at a rate much slower than that of auricular contractions in dying animal hearts. Harvey also described an instance of resuscitation of a
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