Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-05-09

mental Problems.
"A healthy man or WON e does net
die OF broken heart.- a veil known
physician said Il healthy hears Is oaiy
. big muscle, and nobody can have grief
enough TO break IT. When. therefore.
blooming young vidos shows apparent
~ icconceivab.e grief at .he death OF
her husband. and in q short time re-
covers her sqnaninity, she ocQh. ros 20
b accused OF hypocrisy. Neither may
u Is concluded that another -ido. = iao
soon pines and dies has had more a1sc-
ton for her husband than the first The
6rss widow may have had even more
affection than the other. bu. have been
sustained by physical health.
II - erroneous TO suppose that death
by heart disease is elvays Sudden. l. Is
very commonly prosracted fos years.
and remains undetecsed - rzoss skiiifai
physicians only TO be developed BY some
sudden occurrence. There vas an emf
nedt physician OF Brooklyn, In active
practice, Who died within an hour of q
time when he was about TO lecture. He
xas 50 well that. after examination by
skilled physicians Of a first-ciass insur
arce company, he was declared to be
sound, and a policy for $1,000 on his
life reached his home before his body
Was cold. Tie cause Of his death WAS a
mystery until the post-mortein examIna-
ton by DIR. John q. johnson, OF Brook
Ign. showed that little piece of chalky
deposit in the heart had become loosen
ed and formed an snbolism. The man
had simply taken some specimens out
Of his desk and he died IN bis chair with
ont any excitemeut or undue effort Any
little excitement might have done il.
The exertion of grief might have done
it, and then his death would have been
cited as that from broken heart.
.'So-cailed deaths from broken hearts
may be frequently traced in this way.
One exertion as well as another may
furnish the requisite elimination.
Medical books are filed with instances
of death by heart disease during the
performance of p!easurable natural
functions. When man is nearly dead
it is easy to pu. on him the finishing
stroke, but it is inaccurate to give the
finishing stroke all the blame of HE
death. When a woman loses her bus
band. or girl loses her lover, and by
nervous exhaustion, loss of sleep. lack
of nourishnent, and grief. wsakens the
action of her heart, she Is said to dis of
a broken heart, but she has in fact died
of very ordinary disease.
The case of Bill Poole, living for
days with ball in his heart. is often
spoil en- of as remarkable; bus DR.. Flint
records case where man had a ball
in his heart twenty years, and finally
died of pneumonia. Both of these men
had healthy hearts, and could not have
had them broken by grief. Yet. in fact,
more men than womon die of heart dis
ease. Ont of sixty one observed cases
thirty seven were males. Another rec
ord showed seventeen males out of
tventy-four cases. Another record
showed that in sixty two cases OF rup-
ture of the heart there was fatty deoen-
Grafton existing. One observer record
ed seventeen Gases out of tHenty-four
where the heart WAS ruptursd, aad
where fatty degeneration existed. In
other words, when fat is sIbstitu ed for
muscle, the organ is easily broken. Ii
any of these diseased people had been
subjected to sudden grief they might
have furnished Illustrations of heart
breaking. One medical observer records
one hundred cases of rupture of the
heart where there was no grief to ac-
count for it. In fact, grief is very rare
cause of heart breaking.
"Disease is the real Cause of heart
breaking, and the various kinds of dis
ease which lead TO it are so many that
volumes would be necessary to describe
them. The causes of these diseases are
manifold, and are very much under the
control Of the individual. There are,
OF course, hereditary tendencies to heart
disease; but, aside from traumatic
causes. these tendencies may exist for
years without fatal result.
ut is curious fact that the icast dam
gerous heart disease often creates the
most apprehension. Frequently, pa
tients who have only a fractional or
durable disorder will not be persuaded
that calamity does not impend. although
there may be no real danger. On the
other hand. organic disease may exist
unsupported. There are sympathetic
relations between the mind and the
heart, and disorders of the heart are
frequently traoeab.e to mental excite
mont, either pleasurable or painful.
Quick beating of the hear. is no certain
symptom of danger. 1t has boon de-
monstrated that the pulse may safely
range from 100 to 40 per minute for
many years.