In an irregularly acting heart the systolic pressure may vary greatly, from 10 to 20 mm. or more, and a ventricular contraction may not be of sufficient power to open the semilunar valves. Such beats will show an intermittency in the blood pressure reading as well as in the radial pulse. The succeeding heart beats after abortive beats or after a contraction of less power have increased force, and consequently give the highest blood pressure. Kilgore urges that these highest pressures should not be taken as the true systolic blood pressure, but the average of a series of these varying blood pressures. In irregularly acting hearts it is best to compress the arm at a point above which the systolic pressure is heard, then gradually reduce the pressure until the first systolic pressure is recorded, and then keep the pressure of the cuff at this point and record the number of beats of the heart which are heard during the minute. Then reduce the pressure 5 mm. and read again for a minute, and so on down the scale until the varying systolic pressures are recorded. The average of these pressures should be read as the true systolic blood pressure. During an intermittency of the pulse from a weak or intermittently acting ventricle, the diastolic pressure will reach its lowest point, and in auricular fibrillation the pressure pulse from the highest systolic to the lowest diastolic may be very great. In arteriosclerosis the systolic may be high, and the diastolic low, and hence a large pressure pulse. When the heart begins to fail in this condition, the systolic pressure drops and the pressure pulse shortens, and of course any improvement in this condition will be shown by an increase in the systolic pressure. The same is true with aortic regurgitation and a high systolic pressure. If the systolic pressure is low and the diastolic very low, or when the heart is rapid, circulation through the coronary vessels of the heart is more or less imperfect. Any increase in arterial pressure will therefore help the coronary circulation. The compression of a tight bandage around the abdomen, or the infusion of blood or saline solutions, especially when combined with minute amounts of epinephrin, will raise the blood pressure and increase the coronary circulation and therefore the nutrition of the heart.