_Palpitation._—By this term is understood those frequent, strong, and irregular movements of the heart, occurring in individuals who have no indications of organic disease; these movements may be transient or continuous, frequently accompanied with an audible sound, so loud, as to be heard at several yards from the patient. Palpitation is often attended with a feeling of sinking and anxiety, accompanied with fainting fits or syncope, and sometimes with a pulsation at the pit of the stomach. The causes of palpitation, irrespective of a naturally nervous temperament, hysteria and weakness, are any strong emotions of the mind, long study, violent exercise, or a continued passive repose, the debility consequent on fever, or whatever weakens the standard of health. Besides these causes, palpitation may also be a symptom of organic disease of the heart. The persons most frequently affected with palpitation are females; the slightest extra exertion, or exposure to damp foggy weather, often suddenly producing a paroxysm, attended with pain in the head, and a sense of numbness in the left side or arm. Persons who suffer from spinal irritation are also liable to palpitation, attended in such cases with a remarkable acceleration of the pulse, often amounting to 160 beats in a minute. The respiration is generally difficult, or easily rendered so, on the slightest exertion or mental emotion, and frequently induced by the slightest pressure, such as that of the stays on the chest, waist, or lower part of the spine, the pain often being intolerable. Palpitation is very common in young females between the ages of 15 and 25, especially where the occupation is long and sedentary, as in factories, or in dressmakers’ establishments. Indeed, palpitation, with very rare exceptions, may be said to be a complaint peculiar to the female sex, and the more the occupation of young women confines them to a close unvarying atmosphere, the more prone are they to attacks of this troublesome disorder; and the more exposed they are to the open air, the less frequent and the less severe are all such maladies. There are few affections, even of the gravest character, whose symptoms give rise to greater alarm in the mind of the patient, or doubt and uncertainty to the inexperienced practitioner, than those of a severe attack of palpitation: often before seeing his patient he hears the irregular throbbing of the heart; on looking on the white or lividly anxious countenance of the sufferer, fancies he reads the external signs of the most formidable organic mischief, while, in truth, a cheerful aspect, a few confident words, and the simplest remedies, will not only remove all the unpleasant symptoms, but restore the apparently diseased patient to health, and ultimately to strength. It is only when the pulse is intermittent that any organic disease is to be apprehended, the velocity or strength of the pulse depending entirely on some accidental cause, more or less easily removed.