Barth has collected 24 cases of spontaneous rupture of the heart, and in every instance the seat of lesion was in the left ventricle.

It was noticed that in some of these cases the rupture did not take place all at once, but by repeated minor lacerations, death not ensuing in some instances for from two to eleven days after the first manifestation of serious symptoms.

A more recent analysis is given by Meyer of cases reported since 1870: Meyer collects 25 cases of rupture of the left ventricle seven of the right ventricle, and four of the right auricle.

Within the last year Collings has reported a case of idiopathic rupture of the heart in a man of fifty-three, who had always lived a temperate life, and whose only trouble had been dyspepsia and a weak heart.

There was no history of rheumatism or rheumatic fever.