The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-09-03
TERRIBLE COST
In Health and Suffering of Fool
hardy Athletic Feats.

New York Weekly
DR.. Edward c. Clifton, attending ply
sician at the Northeastern dispensary, in
Fifty ninth street, is an authority on
heart diseases. He has taken keen in
terest in the recent experiment of Charles
Murphy, who rode mile on a bicycle in
81 As seconds behind a locomotive, as
well as the feat of a woman who COM
pleted a bicycle ride of 400 miles in forty
eight consecutive hours. DR.. Clifton said
yesterday:
cit might be well for those who con-
template similar foolhardy feats to care
fully consider the cost to the human body,
to say nothing to the immediate risk to
life There is the effect upon that most
important and vital organ, the heart.
Do these athletes or so-called athletes
understand that the human heart in
healthy adult normally beating from sew
enty-two to eighty times per minute, must
necessarily, under the enforced labor, in
crease it's speed to double or more that
number of pulsa tons, and that such an
enormous and sudden increase must
have a profound effect upon such a SEN
sitive organ?
1.-The effect is, first, a diation of the
ventricles of the heart and an increase in
the tension of the valves. Either the
ventricles or valves may rupture, produc-
ing instantaneous death. But suppose
this extreme does not happen. The 'ath-
lete prhaps little thinks that from that
one violent squirt OF a few seconds or
minutes, which brought him temporary
fame, he may have to spend the remain
ing years of his life suffering from heart
disease and endocarditis, the dierct re-
suit of that superhuman effort against
Father Time. When he has once devel-
oped chronic endocarditis he is at all
times liable to sudden death
All the organs of the body suffer in
their turn. The diseases produced in
these organs may become chronic and
make life miserable for the victim.
There may be a rupture of the blood
vessels in various parts of the body; the
brain may be attacked, which would pro-
duce what is commonly known as apo
plexy. Death may result from hemor-
rhage of the lungs. This Is known to
have happened in cases in which the ex-
crtion was less than in the cases referred
to- ] have considered the heart because
it is the organ that feels the effect first
and because it is the effect on this organ
that causes death in the majority of
cases.
Athletics, as practiced at the large
universities and colleges, is science and
promotes the highest type of physical and
mental development. In these institu-
tons there is a physician to examine the
candidate. Careful measurements are
made, Systematically, and the effect upon
the heart and lungs is noted The stu
dent is trained long and gradually. 1t is
when q man has not this care and then
makes some violent effort to accomplish
d certain feat out of proportion to his
training that disastrous results may be
expected. Physical endurance has its
limit. 1t is only the foolhardy who will
force the limit.
"a woman is, by her more delicate con-
struction, less adapted to these strains
than man, and in her ease she Is liza
bic to diseases not to be reckoned upon
IN man. Even if she survives she is LA
bic to and usually has some chronic dis
ease.
consider feats similar to the ones
cited as foolhardy and unsportsmanlike."