The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1869-11-19
TOLD FOR TRUTH.
WHAT A HEART MAY CONTAIN.

idea of the sentimental phrase. "a
broken heart,'' having ssy literal
Specification. Yet some authorities
have afiru.ed that such an accident
as a real rupture of one of the ven
tricles of the heart 10 man, and ewes
iu the lower animals, may occur un-
der the strain Of very sudden or in
tense emotion, or in consequence of
too extreme physical effort, as in
leaping, running, climbing, or in lift
ing heavy weights.
The writer who records the follow
ing remarkable facts will not under
take either to discuss UT to repair
broken hearts, in this place, but will
leave the appreciation of his narra-
tive to those who are familiar with
the marYels of science.
have a queer sanetum and a quiet
one among the rocks that overlook
the widest cliffs above Weehawkeu,
and it is haunted by queer people.
They all live aud eove before you
every day, good reader, but their
names are, probably, not on the list
of your fashionable aoquaintanoes
They are men aud women of peculiar
studies, quaint experiences, varied
and often sad adventures; but they
are pleasant companions after all,
not warped and sOured by the merit
ed or unmerited bufetings of the
world, but only quieted and handled
by what they have learned and seen.
Their only sarcasm is for the arro-
gance, assumption, and the little
apish affectations which wealth, posi-
ton, or the spirit of coterie, some
times brings out, like rash, upon
the moI4i surface Of weak people.
All these friends are scientific
students and thinkers; most of them
polyglot in languages and learned
specialties; many ofthem distinguish.
ed as professors and practitioners.
| Life is too solemn and intricate a
mystery for them to triae with it,
and death too close at hand, too east
lly invoked, too sudden in Its coming,
to be forgotten even during their
gayest hours. Only the uniformed
or the thoughtless make light of
either life or death, or any of those
inexpiicsble 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
preseGt year, after sultry day, mists
add shadows resting over the Hudson
and the green heights beyond, while
| far to the right, on the lowland
stretching seaWsrd, and fading into
the veil of distance, lay the great
city, like a Jagged cloud dotted with
speoks of light The birds were ST.
lent the house was still; the gloam-
ing sombre; and the very 6re-fies
seemed languid in the occasional
flashes they threw out, like signal,
among the dripping leaves that hung
beyond the edge of the high-perched
covered balcony, where another sal
with me talking of strange thing.
confdingly, in uudertones, as rea
friends may do. -~,-..
Ny companion, whom | shall make
free to call the doctor" slipped hi
thumb and foreinger into his waist
4 coat-pocket, and drew something from
it which he showed to me. 1t was
sort of sheath, about two inches il
length, half an inch in diameter, ant
I of a steely gray color.
''Examine that, he said.
I took the article and looked at il
surmising, from its appearance, tha
| it was of platinum.
r "N here did you get that?' l ask
t ed.
ain the heart Of man who
deadr'
5 I started with amazement at S
E singular a reply; but the doctor So
: there beside me, calm and perfectl
{ cool, looking with a grave face tc
ward the dim spires on the horizon
: Il said the heart" he resumes
/, ain order to strike your attention
: without having to explain things |
o tedious length. In science, bOHeVe
: the expression is a heresy. But ha
D l at once said the pleura. you voul
not have understood me. Let n
u now remark that the pleura prop'
n consists of two membranes, one
which lines the interior surface
: the ribs, and the other touches Il
is lung. Pleurs, lung, mediastine, ar
re heart, such is the quadruple comb
d nation that forms a totality whic
we term life. This article was in Il
st pleura.' .'-
s. This explanation had hopeless
re darkened the whole affair for me-
How could so large an object intr
IT duce itself into the heart? He
y could it be there for a moment wit
out causing the most terrible disc
is der, if not immediate death? The
an above all, what was 1t? --
nd The doctor continued:
go This deceased friend of mine v
forty years of age. We had go
through college together. Fife
an years ago, he fell desperately, since
Id iy, in love with young girl. Be
I'D were free, but his whole family b
he ,erly opposed the idea of his mar
ed ing lady whose pedigree they
to serted was stained with crime, q
~ the condition of affairs surroundi
ak him was such that he had to defer
'hs their opinion, for the time at lei
yet under protest, and looking
ward to the day when he should
,ne absolutely independent, and CO
can make his bride happy in a comfOi
L