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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Unpublished paper, 'Note on the functions of the sinuses of Valsalva and auricular appendices, with some remarks on the mechanism of the heart and pulse' by M [Mayo] Collier

Reference number: AP/64/10

Date: 1887

Description

The object of the paper is to disprove the idea that the sinuses of Valsalva are 'mere bulgings of the arterial walls', formed by a reflex current induced by the sudden closure of the semilunar valves. The existence of a reflex current is shown to be impossible, and the theory of the sudden opening and closure of the semilunar valves is strongly opposed.

Subject: Physiology

Received and read 9 June 1887. Communicated by Victor Horsley.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 42 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'Note on the functions of the sinuses of Valsalva and auricular appendices, with some remarks on the mechanism of the heart and pulse'.

A version of this paper was published by Collier in The Lancet: Collier, Mayo. 'On the functions of the sinuses of Valsalva and auricular appendices, with some remarks on the mechanism of the heart and pulse.' The Lancet, volume 131, number 3380 (1888), pp. 1122-1123.

Reference number
AP/64/10
Earliest possible date
1887
Physical description
Ink and graphite pencil on paper
Page extent
25 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator name

Mayo Collier

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Citation

Mayo Collier, Unpublished paper, 'Note on the functions of the sinuses of Valsalva and auricular appendices, with some remarks on the mechanism of the heart and pulse' by M [Mayo] Collier, 1887, AP/64/10, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_64_10/unpublished-paper-note-on-the-functions-of-the-sinuses-of-valsalva-and-auricular-appendices-with-some-remarks-on-the-mechanism-of-the-heart-and-pulse-by-m-mayo-collier, accessed on 23 January 2026

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    The 'Archived Papers' collection is comprised of original manuscript scientific papers and letters submitted to the Royal Society which remained unpublished or were abstracted in the journal 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' published from 1830 onwards.

    Dates: 1768 - 1989

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