[Retrospect of the history of recognition on the mechanism of heart failure and its research in the 19(th) century].

There were the records of heart failure in the 6(th) century B.C. At that time, clinical observation was the main approach. The combination of observation and anatomy in the 18(th) century rendered the application of pathological anatomy in the research of etiology and pathogenesis of heart failure possible. Up to the 19(th) century, with the upsurge of modern science, the laboratory became the center of medicine. The introduction of experiment into the clinic was used in the exploration of clinical significance of changes of the diseased heart's size and shape, and the difference between cardiac hypertrophy and cardiectasis was found. The pathogenesis of these two diseases was analyzed, and the significance of compensation in cardiac hypertrophy was revealed, then the relationship of cardiovalvular disease, cardiac hypertrophy and cardiac dilatation was demonstrated.