That there has been no startling advance in our methods of physical diagnosis since the days of Skoda and his pupils will probably not be denied. These men left us a rich heritage, and we are only now, through the use of scientific instruments, blazing new paths and adding valuable record findings to those of the unaided senses. The use of the polygraph with adults has proved of great value in correlating physiologic and clinical data. It has removed that element which we speak of as the "personal equation," and instead gives records which are true for all time, and only require correct interpretation. These records have stimulated closer study of the heart and the circulation, so that the anatomist, physiologist, pathologist and clinician have all profited thereby and developed newer conceptions of the intricate cardiac mechanism. The studies of Gaskell, who showed that the heart muscle itself possesses characteristic