St. Paul daily globe., 1894-01-07
"HEART FAILURE"

~AA'hNSV OfSAJ od1 tiiC oCotu VI oOlliC
prominent person is announced, and
the physicians gravely assert that the
extinction of the vital spark was due to
''heart failure" The verdict is pre-
cisely as lucid. as Intelligent and as
satisfactory as would be "died for want
OF BREATH" For all of the millions OF
human beings who since the creation
OF the world have passed from this vale
of tears have died of heart failure.
That vital organ has failed to perform
its functions, and life has in conse-
Quence ceased. The failure may have
been due to the administration of a
dose Of cold poison. to the ravages of
the smallpox or any other of the vast
number of epidemic diseases, or the
subject may have had his brains
knocked out by bludgeoa--it is all the
same; "heart failure" caused his death,
for If the action of til. heart had not
been interrupted life would have con-
tinued indefinitely
1t Is but few months since the wife
of prominent citizen of Chicago had
her brains beaten out by club in the
hands OF her son-in-law. An inquest
was held, and the physicians. among
the most prominent in the city, united
i'll attributing death to heart failure.
and thus the death certificate was is
sued. The woman's head WAS beaten
almost to jelly, AMI there was every
indication that murder had been COM
mitted. But the physicians were sure
the victim of tine crime would have been
alive ii her heart had not failed to per-
form its functions, and therefore their
verdict. In this instance the desire of
the physicians to shield fellow MEM
Der OF their profession may have
prompted to the verdict; yet It was no
more absurd than are hundreds of other
judgments that are being rendered
every day,
When a physician says that q patient
has died of heart failure he substan-
TALLY confesses that he does not know
what disease he died of. He simply
knows that the vital functions have
suspended operations, and he has either
no curiosity to learn what caused the
suspension or too ignorant to ascertain.
The heart does not cease its beatingS
without some cause. 1t is not the cessa-
tioD of action that is responsible for
death, but rather the cause of that
cessation. The physician who, for any
reason, fails to ascertain the primary
cause is either incompetent or neglect
full, and in either case is not fit to he
entrusted with the care of human
being in time of sickness. Heart fail
ure" is convenient phrase. 1t suits
all emergencies, and is a shelter for ig-
norance, often of a criminal nature. For
how can the physician who does not
know the complaint from which. his
patient is suffering intelligently pre-
scribe for him? He may give him a
drug that will kill instead Of curin G,
and perhaps he sometimes does; and,
having poisoned the man he was asked
to cure. he tells the sorrowing friends
that death was caused by heart failure.
There could be no more thorough con-
fession of ignorance and imbecility-
perhaps of crime.
No self-respecting physician can con-
sistently declare himself fool by at
tributing death to heart failure. There
are organic and nervous diseases of the
heart that may, and often do, cause
death, but they are we'll defined IN their
symptoms, as well as in their results,
and cannot be mistaken. But there is
no such disease as "heart failure" The
| name was coined for purpose, that of
concealment-the concealment of the
real death-producing cause, or of the
ignorance of the attending physician.
We are glad to see that the medical
journals are taking up this matter, and
handling physicians who use the heart
failure cloak as they deserve. There is
certainly need of reform in this direc-
| tion-a reform that will relieve the med
ical profession from responsibility for
the ignorance and want of good sense of
some of its own members.