This classic description of angina pectoris is the substance of a paper read on July 21, 1768. Although descriptions of angina are to be found in the works of earlier writers, these mention only dyspnoea in their cases. The merit of Herberden’s account (in which, incidently, he used the name “angina pectoris”) lies in the fact that he was the first to include a description of the paroxysmal oppression in the thorax. Reprinted with other writings by Heberden in An Introduction to the Study of Physic, New York, 1929.