Hope did much to advance the knowledge of heart murmurs, valvular disease, and aneurysm; he described the second sound of the left side of the sternum in mitral stenosis as “altered” – losing its short, flat clear sound and becoming a prolonged bellows murmur. From his description this became known as “Hope’s early diastolic murmur.” His classic descriptions of cardiac asthma, valvular disease (pp. 307-45 above), and cardiac neurosis are reprinted in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 405-15. Probably published in 1831 (see review in Lond. med. phys. J., 1831, p. 513-22 (Dec.)) although “all known copies seem to have cancel title page dated 1832” (Wellcome Catalogue).

Hope left a fine pathological atlas with brilliantly hand-coloured lithographs from his own drawings. While the book does not equal the atlases of Cruveilhier and Carswell, it is important as being a great stimulus to the study of pathology in England.