In the Star Trek episode "Court Martial", when McCoy used the white sound device on Spock, why did he use it on his chest? Isn't the Vulcan’s heart located in the area of where the human liver would be?
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1Had the position of a Vulcan's heart been established by that point?– F1KrazyCommented Dec 16, 2019 at 14:53
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1It wasn't established until the episode Private Little War, I was looking for an in universe explanation.– GalacticCriminalCommented Dec 16, 2019 at 14:56
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3 Answers
According to the Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual, Vulcan hearts are on the right side, below the lungs.
Holding the heart monitor near to the correct part of the anatomy seems to be sufficient to pick up the sound given that he holds it near to the Conn Officer's shoulder and it still picks up his heartbeat.
It all depends from what your view of the science of Star Trek is. You could take the view that the actors and director just didn't bother too much about consistency when it comes to Vulcan anatomy. And then handwave away things with technobabble. Obviously the technology must be very clever.
But you could also argue that they knew more about medicine than you think, and that this is actually how medicine works. In real-world medicine, one does not listen for heart sounds at the places where the heart valves are. One listens for them at the places to where the sound best conducts from the valve to the surface of the body.
One listens for the sound of the pulmonary valve at the 2nd left intercostal, for example, not by placing a stethoscope directly over where the valve actually is. Listening for the mitral valve is done way over to the left.
It's quite plausible that such considerations apply to Vulcans too.
Further reading
- "Heart auscultation". Auscultation. healthjade.net.
You must also consider that Spock is half-Human, half-Vulcan. While the standard genotype Vulcan may have a heart below the right lung, this may or may not apply to Spock. He likely has a mix of Human and Vulcan physiology. (I suggest this before researching whether any canon episode established Spock had the same internal physiology as full-blood Vulcans.)
In the episode "This Side of Paradise," a colonist caresses Spock in the center of the chest, suggesting this is where his (heart-felt) feelings were from.
