Right ventricle

“ The right ventricle is more often affected than the left, because of the greater frequency of obstruction in the circulation through the lungs than in that through the general system, and because of the thinness of its walls which more readily give way under internal pressure. Dilatation may result from disease of the great arteries, from diminution of their calibre by the pressure of tumours, or by narrowing of their openings at the heart, whether as the result of diseased valves or other morbid condition. ”

“ It sometimes (though rarely) happens, that, with an increase of strength and bulk in its muscular structure, the left ventricle suffers a diminution of capacity in its cavity. In a case reported by Laënnec, the left ventricle was an inch and a half thick at its broadest, and an inch thick at its thinnest part ”

“ The work which the right ventricle accomplishes is very much less than that of the left, and the right ventricle has a correspondingly thinner wall. The size of the heart is influenced by the size and the occupation of the individual being larger in the large individual than in the small, and larger in the active and vigorous than in the inactive. Generally speaking, the heart is about as large as the closed fist of its possessor.
Imperfections of the heart which interfere with its action may be the result of failure of development or disease. ”

“ Percussion over the region of the heart yields a dull flat sound. The sound is dullest opposite the right ventricle, F; whilst above and to either side of this point, where the heart is overlapped by the anterior shelving edges of both lungs, the sound is modified in consequence of the lung’s resonant qualities. The heart-sounds, as heard through the stethoscope, in valvular disease, will, of course, be more distinctly ascertained at the locality of F, the right ventricle, which is immediately substernal. While the body lies supine, the heart recedes from the forepart of the chest ”

“ But no one need remain in doubt of the fact, for if the ventricle be pierced the blood will be seen to be forcibly projected outwards upon each motion or pulsation when the heart is tense.
These things, therefore, happen together or at the same instant: the tension of the hearty the pulse of its apex, which is felt externally by its striking against the chest, the thickening of its parietes, and the forcible expulsion of the blood it contains by the constriction of its ventricles. ”

“ For neither are the conduits small, nor the contractions few in number, but frequent, and always in some certain proportion, whether it be a third or a sixth, or an eighth, to the total capacity of the ventricles, so that a like proportion of blood must be expelled, and a like proportion received with each stroke of the heart, the capacity of the ventricle contracted always bearing a certain relation to the capacity of the ventricle when dilated. ”