Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1869-10-15
MISCELLANEOUS.
TOLD FOR TRUTH.
WHAT A HEART MAY CONTAIN.

Sound science has secuted at the idea of
the sentimental phrase, "a broken heart"
having any literal slgnifcation. Yet some
authorities have affirmed that such an ac-
cident as real rupture of one of the
ventrcles of the heart in man, and even
in the lower animals, may occur under
the strain of very sudden or intense emo
tion, or in consequence Of too extreme
physical effort, as in leaping, running,
climbing, or in lifting heavy weights.
The writer who records the following
remarkable facts will not undertake either
to discuss or to repair broken hearts, in
this place, but will leave the appreciation
of his narrative to those who are familiar
with the marvels of science
l have queer sanctum and quiet one
among the rocks that overlook the widest
ellis above Weehawken, and it is haunted
by queer people They all live and move
before you every day, good reader, but
their names are, probably, not on the list
OF your fashionable acquaintances. They
are men and women of peculiar studies,
quaint experiences, varied and often sad
adventures; but they are pleasant COM
panions after all, not warped and soured
by the merited or unmerited buffetings of
the world, but only quicted and humblcd
III.
Their only sarcasm is for the arrogance,
assumption, and the little apish affccta-
tions which wealth, position, or the spirit
of eoterie, sometimes brings out, like a
rash. upon the moral surface of weak
people.
All these friends are scientific students
and thinkers; most of them polyglot in
languages and learned speciaities many
OF them distinguished as professors and
practitioners. Life is too solemn and in
tricate mystery for them to tri1e with it,
and death too close at hand, too easily in
voked, too sudden in its coming, to be for
gotten even during their gayest hours.
Only the uninformed or the thoughtless
make light of either life or death, or any
of those inexplicable things that are over,
under, and around us, continually and
forever, whether our Immortality be
clothed with the flesh or with the spirit
only. +.
A rainy evening in June of the present
year, after a sultry day, mists and shadows
resting over the Hudson and the green
heights beyond, while far to the right, ON
the lowland stretching seaward, and fad
ing into the veil of distance, lay the great
city, like Jagged cloud dotted with specks
of light. The birds were silent; the house
was still the cleaning sombre; and the
very fire. flies seemed languid in the occa-
sional flashes they threw out, like signals
among the dripping leaves that hung be-
yond the edge of the high -perched, covered
balcony, where another sat with me, talk
ing of strange things confidingly, in un-
dertones, as real friends may do. c
My companion, whom shall make free
to call the " Doctor" slipped his thumb
and foretinger into his waistcoat- pocket,
and drew something from it which he
showed 20 me. 1t was sort of sheath,
about two inches in length, half an inch
in diameter, and of a steeiy-gray color.
"EKamine that" he said. sW
| took the article and looked at it. sur.
missing, from its appearance, that it was of
platinum
."Whore did you get that?"j I asked. !
l." In the heart of man who is dead ~
started with amazcment at so singular
a reply; but the doctor sat there beside
me, calm and perfectly cool, looking with
grave face toward the dim spires ON the
horizon. .o..-,
II said the heart" he resumed, "in or
der to strike your attention, without hay.
ing to ssxllainr things at tcdious length.
In science, however, the expression Is a
heresy, "a But had i at once said the pLeurd,
you would not have understood me. Let
me now remark that the pleuEa proper
consists of two membranes, one of which
lines the interior surface of the ribs, and
the other touches the lung Pleura, lung,
mediastinc, and heart, such is the quadru-
pie combination that forms totafty which
we term life. This article was in the
pleura." .-5,
This explanation had hopelessIy dark
ened the whole affair for me- How could
so large an object introduce itself into the
hearty How could it be there for a
moment without causingsthe most terrible
disorder, il not immediate death? Then,
above all, what was itg
The doctor continued:
"This deceased friend Of mine was forty
years Of age. We had gone through col,
lege together. Fifteen years ago, he fell
desperately, sincerely, IN love with a yOurg
girl Both were free, but his whole
family bitterly opposed the idea Of his
marrying lady whose pedigree they as
serted was stained with crime, and the
condition, of affairs sirroupdiRg- hiBl-,Was
chtbat DE had 10 defer To their opinion,
for the time at least, yetunder protest, and
looking forward 10 the day when he should
be absolutely independent, and could make
hts bride happy in q comfortable home, 1
But the poor girl was consumptiye,'
and her ohagrin at the indignity put upon
py lne felauReS OF sneG preferred lover
was such as TO hasten the progress of her
mslady. In few months, she died, leav-
ing him utterly dssolatc, Still, he did not
weep Alas, the fountains of his tears
RpHFS sealed by 80 parnlyzing q sorrow
HeYSatohed by the dead; assisted with
plet dignity at her burial and then,
turning away from her grave with a face
ghastly yet stern, was seen no more in his
accIisloGhe shaunts for several DAYS.
SoIno said that he had gone upon long
journey. But, about week afterward, he
wsssfopndl tying in,u remote part of 8
wood, some thirty miles from =, with a
discharged pistol on the grass beside him
ltBhad fired ball, as every one believed
into, MS heart Yet there were signs OF
lifeabout him, and he was brought to the
nearest towii, where / chanced' 10 be at
the COUNTRY house of an old patient, The
local physician and surgeon Happened to
besahsenb and 4 was summoned ini haste
totthe ina " which the dying man had
been plugeyed, Brief examination con.
yinced me that not only was the wounded
man still living, but there was even DOS