1806

Corvisart, in Essay on the Organic Diseases and Lesions of the Heart and Great Vessels, associated failure of mitral valve to open completely (stenosis) with a palpable “thrill,” a vibration, felt by doctor’s fingertips on patient’s chest (the mitral thrill), but his main concern was with prediction of cardiac enlargement (“aneurysm”). Like Sénac, he believed heart diseases came from “the passions,” such as a fit of anger or the distress owing to the “horrible times” of the French Revolution (Duffin, 178).