The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-09-02
Heart Affections.


There is not a pins point surface Of
external portion of the'body which does
not give instantaneous warning of the
slightest invasion from without 1t is
our guard against external dangers.
But the more important internal organs
are so well protected by the castings
which surround them that they do not
require such constituencies hence it is
not thrown away upon them. For ex-
ample 1t is generally supposed that if
the heart is touched we would die in
stantly. So far from this being true,
bayonets and bullets have been driven
into the heart of men and animals with
out causing death. The bullet which
caused the death of William Poole was
found Embedded in the solid substance of
the heart, and yet he lived IL days after
he was shot.
The great Harvey brought Charles II.
to British nobleman who had an open
ing in his chest, through which the
heart could be seen and felt The king
touched it with his finger, but the noble
man was not aware of it, unless he saw
the fingers in the cavity. And yet this
same heart responds to every emotion OF
Joy, or grief, or passion, OF alarm.
Persons often trouble themselves USE
lessly about having disease of the heart
or lungs, because they have pain there
abouts. These are good signs, generally,
as showing that the pain are external to
these organs, for there can be no pain
where there are no nerves. The fact is,
the most certainly fatal affections of
these organs give no note of warning by
pain until within the last brief hours of
life. The very substance of the lungs
and heart are often eaten through, eaten
away, without remote suspicion ON the
part of the patient that such was the
case. The celebrated clerical orator,
John Newland Maffitt, died of liter
ally broken heart-not an emotional
breaking, but structural rupture it
and slowly decayed, rotted away, until
so near through that its functions could
not be performed when pains came on,
and he died in a.few hours. On exam
ination it was found that this destruc-
ton of par IS had been going on for
months.
But another result follows the closing
of the pores of the skin, and more i'm
mediatelv dangerous. A main outlet
for the waste of the body is closed, it re-
mingles with the blood, which in few
hours becomes impure, and begins to
generate disease in every fibre of the
system. The whole machinery of the
man becomes at once disordered, and he
at once complains of feeling miserable. "
The terrible effects of checked perspira-
ton on dog, who sweats only by his
tongue, is evinced by his becoming mad
The water runs in streams from a dogs
mouth in Summer, if exercising freely.
If it ceases to run, that is hydrophobia.
1t has been asserted by French physi-
clan that if person suffering under hy
drophobia can be only made to perspire
freely he is cured at once. 1t is familiar
to the most commonest observer that in
all ordinary forms of disease the patient
begins to get better the moment he be-
gins to perspire, simply because the in
ternal heat is passing of, and there is
an outlet for the waste of the system.
Thus it is that one of the most import
ant means for curing all sickness is
bodily cleanliness, which is simply re.
moving from the mouths of these little
pores that gum, and dust, and oil which
clog them up. Thus it is, also, that
personal cleanliness is one Of the main
elements of health-thus it is that filth
and disease habitate together the world
over.
The great practical lesson which we
wish to impress upon the mind of the
reader is this: When you are prespiring
freely, keep in motion until you get to
good fire, or to some place where you
are perfectly sheltered from any draft of
air whatever.