Theses de corde et eius vitiis

XXXII.
It does not contradict this that Galen established coldness as a cause of palpitation. We add heat, however, because we accept palpitation in a more general sense.

XXXIII.
Bad composition includes any defect of those things that pertain to the nature of the instrument. Therefore, since the heart is the instrument of pulsation, nothing that nature has crafted for it to perform that function correctly ought to be impaired.

XXXIIII.
Palpitation can occur on account of a solution of continuity if the heart is wounded or ulcerated on the surface of its substance, which it is certain happens from time to time. For the heart, averting its own destruction, moves otherwise than according to nature while it tries to expel that which harms it. We except, however, the chambers of the heart, which cannot be wounded without death following.

XXXV.
Furthermore, flatus and vapors change the natural motion of the heart. These, exhaling differently from diverse matter, seek the heart and afflict it more or less, depending on how malicious they are.

XXXVI.
They have both internal causes of their generation, such as a colder intemperies of other parts as well as the heart, and external ones. Among these are colder air, flatulent food, excessive vigils, and poisons, which either produce thick and copious fumes by which the heart is suffocated, or, on account of their thinness, quickly turn into fatal exhalations, which, rushing through the arteries to the heart, corrupt its spirits.