OBJECTSStatements in anatomical textbooks regarding such features as the vertebral level of the sternum, the projection of the heart on the surface, and the position of the upper parts of liver and stomach, commonly leave many questions unanswered, for instance the difference between the living subject and the cadaver, between the sexes, and between individuals of the same age and sex. Such questions are only partly answered even by statements based on the radiological examination of the living subject, for example in the works of Barclay ('33) and of Appleton, Hamilton and Tchaperoff ( '38). Cardiac radiology, used for diagnostic purposes, is largely concerned with the size of the heart rather than with its position referred to vertebrae or costal cartilages, and for the heart and other thoracic organs there appear to be no radiological studies comparable to those of Moody and his collaborators ('26, '27) on the stomach and intestine. The main object of the study here recorded was to partially fill that lacuna. Its second object was to evaluate the apex beat, clinically determined, as a clue to the position of the heart.There is considerable disagreement as to the relationship between the apex beat and the radiographic shadow of the heart. For instance, Roesler ('37, p. 106) stated that the apical thrust is approximately thrice as frequent outside the silhouette as inside, whereas Kurtz and White ( '28) found 457
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.