Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-04-14
WHY HEARTS BREAK.

ga healthy man or woman does not die
of broken heart" well-kn physi-
clan said "a healthy heart is only big
muscle, aud nobody can have grief enough
TO break it. When, therefore, blooming
young widow shows apparently inconceiv-
able grief at the death of her husband, and
in short time RECEIVERS her equanimity,
she ought not to be accused of hypocrisy.
Neither may it be concluded that another
widow who soon pines and dies has had
more affection for her husband than the
frat widow, who may have had even more
affection than the other, but have been
sustained by physical health. 1t is errone-
Gus to suppose that death by heart disease
is always sudden. 1t is very commonly
protracted for years, and exists undetected
by most sklllful physicians only to be de
veloped by some sudden occurrence. There
was an eminent physician of Brooklyn, in
active practice, who died within an hour of
a time when he was about to lecture. He
was SO well that, after examira alton by
skilled physicians of first-class insurance
company, he was declared to be perfectly
sound, and a policy for $4,000
insurance on his life reached his home be.
fore the body was cold. The cause of his
death was mystery until the post NOR
tenn examination, by DR.. John G. john
son of Brooklyn, showed that little
piece of chalky deposit in the heart had
become loosened and formed an embolism.
The man had simply taken some speci.
mems out OF his desk, and he died in his
chair without any excitement or undue
effort. Any little excitement might have
h. of i1hS
done it, and then his death would have
been cited as that from broken heart.
So.called 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 flied with instances of death by dis
ease during the performance of pleasurable
natural functions. When man is nearly
dead it is easy to put on him the finish
ing stroke, but it is inaccurate to give
the finishing stroke all the blame of his
death. When a woman loses her hus.
band, or a girl loses her lover, and by
nervous exhaustion, loss of sleep, lack of
nourishment and grief, weakens the action
of her heart, she is said to die 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 spoken OF as remarkable
but DR.. Flint recalls a case where a man
had ball in his heart twenty years, and
finally died of pneumonia. Both these men
had healthy hearts, and could not have had
them broken by grief. Yet, in fact, more
men than women die of heart disease. Out
of sixty-one observed cases thirty-seven
were males. Another record showed seven.
teen males out of twenty-four cases. Am
other record showed that in sixty-two cases
of rupture of the heart there was fatty de-
generation existing One observer recorded
seventeen cases out of twenty-four where
the heart was rup,ured, and where fatty
degeneration existed. In other words,
when fat is substituted for muscle, the or
gan is easily broken. II any of these dis
eased people had been subjected to sudden
grief they might have furnished illustra-
tions of heart-breaking. One medical OBJ
server records 100 cases of rupture of the
heart where there was no grief
to account 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 disease
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 in
dividual There are, of course, hereditary
tendencies to heart disease but aside from
traumatic causes, these tendencies may
exist for years without fatal result. 1t is
a curious fact that the least dangerous
heart disease often creates the most appre-
hension, Frequently patients who have
only functional or durable disorder will
not be persuaded that calamity does not
impend, although there may be no real
danger. On the other hand, organic dis
ease may exist unsupported. There are
sympathetic relations between the mind
and the heart, and disorders of the heart
are frequently traceable to mental excite
ment, either pleasurable or painful. Quick
beating of the heart is no certain symptom
of danger. It has been demonstrated that
the pulse may safely range from 100 to l40
per minute for many years. New York