* * * * * Born about ten years after the last-mentioned eminent physician, DOMINIC JOHN CORRIGAN for many years held a position in Dublin somewhat parallel to that of Watson in London. He was a native of Dublin, born on December 1st, 1802, his father having been a merchant in Thomas Street. Educated first at the lay college of St. Patrick’s at Maynooth, he entered upon medical study as the pupil of Dr. O’Kelly of Maynooth, who had foresight to discern that his pupil was capable of rising to the highest position in the profession, and advised his being sent to the Edinburgh Medical School. Part of his medical study was, however, pursued in Dublin, where he attended clinical lectures at Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital. His Edinburgh degree dates from 1825. The rising science of pathology had deeply impressed young Corrigan’s mind, and he devoted himself, after settling in Dublin as physician to the Meath Street Dispensary, to original study. One of the principal fruits of his inquiries was his classic paper on “Permanent Patency of the Mouth of the Aorta, or Inadequacy of the Aortic Valves,” published in the _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal_, April 1832. This paper commenced with the following statement, “The disease to which the above name is given has not, so far as I am aware, been described in any of the works on diseases of the heart. The object of the present paper is to supply that deficiency. The disease is not uncommon. It supplies a considerable proportion of cases of deranged action of the heart, and it deserves attention from its peculiar signs, its progress, and its treatment. The pathological essence of the disease consists in inefficiency of the valvular apparatus at the mouth of the aorta, in consequence of which the blood sent into the mouth regurgitates into the ventricle. This regurgitation, and the signs by which it is denoted, are not necessarily connected with one particular change of structure in the valvular apparatus.” One particular feature attending these cases, which Corrigan was the first fully to describe, was the extraordinary character of the pulse, since known very generally as “Corrigan’s pulse.” The strong visible pulsation in the arteries of the head, neck, and arms, bounding into a new position with each beat of the heart, and becoming prominent under the skin, has since proved the means whereby aortic valvular disease of the heart has been recognised in multitudes of cases. The full pulse, followed by almost complete collapse, has since been termed “jerking, splashing, or collapsing,” or the “water-hammer pulse.” The peculiar rushing thrill felt by the finger in the large superior arteries was also dwelt upon, as well as the “bruit de souffle” heard as an accompaniment of the heart-sounds. Corrigan had corrected Laennec’s erroneous view of the cause of this bruit, in a previous paper in the _Lancet_ of vol. ii., 1829, p. 1.