The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-02
THE HEART-DETECTING SOUNDS THROUGH d..

jority of persons. in the United States
at least. have some form of heart dis
ease This is due TO the high pressure
under which we live. The result is be-
cause the condition has been suddenly
thrust upon us. rather than because of
the condition itself. For centuries our
ancestors logged along through life
with what might be called measured,
dignified tread, each nation within
itself. Then came the great comming
ling which was brought about by the
settling and development of America.
1t bred a race of men that evolved the
railroad. the telegraph, the telephone,
the typewriter, and all of the other
quickening inventions of the age.
Speed became the one great necessity.
The days of slow journeys long letter
writing. etc. were past. Men now be-
gin to rush into the cities on fast trains.
They make fortunes in stock exchanges
by methods which depended for sue
cess on the difference in time between
the east and west. They rushed out to
quick lunchs, which We're swallowed in
the interval of so many business deals,
and they rushed home again, while
they scanned successive editions of
newspapers which contained informa-
tion of all the world. in most cases not
one hour old. Their wives and children
partook of this rush and hustle in
greater or less degree. And all this in
spite of the fact that their ancestors
had prepared them for a condition di-
rectly opposite to the existing one. To
be sure. after several generations, the
race has worked itself into step-it may
be said to have come up abreast of its
environment, but the effect physically
has been the generating of maladies
which frequently leave men dead in
bed, in office. or in the frenZied pursuit
of r1+ ba 70. eel
these fatalities has been attributed to
heart disease.
DR.. Thomas f. Satterthwaite of New
York, who is on the staff of the post
graduate and the orthopaedic hospitals,
has been to Bad Nauheim to study the
treatment, and is now practicing it in
America. He was asked to describe il
and to talk about some of the curious
aspects Of the great American malady.
He said:
The heart. being the central pump
ing station for all the rapidly snoving
currents Of the human body, is natuT-
ally very susceptible of changes that
may take place in those currents. It
may vary greatly in bulk during
twenty-four hours Its beat may go
down to fifty and up TO 500. If a man
stands up or lies down. the difference
in his position will cause his heart to
vary ten beats a minute. or 500 an hour.
w men we lIlIlh lUdI edCn one OF these
lost or gained beats alters the speed of
the blood through the veins we get
some idea of what Slight changes in
this organ may mean to the body at
large, for the above change is what
takes place in a healthy man; in
diseased man the difference becomes
much greater. 1t is curious. also. that
the heart sometimes murmurs when its
owner is lying down in a way that can
not be detected when he is standing
These sounds vary with age and with
health. Nierordt studied them. He
placed number of fiat pieces of gutta
percha, shaped like poker chips. on the
chests of men, women and children. He
piled these chips one above the other
just over the heart, until they formed
a solid column. Then ne placed his ear
TO the top of the pile and listened. If
the sound of the heart could not be
heard through the pile. Vierordt re-
moved the chips from the top of the
pile, one by one. until it could be heard.
in this way he got comparison of the
intensity of the sounds. He confirmed
the idea that different parts of the
heart made different sounds. There
We're two distinct sounds-one a low
pitched, vibrating sound of about forty
vibrations a second the other "A sound
in the base clef of between 100 and geo
vibrations a second. These observa-
tions were invaluable to other investi-
gators. They were enabled to detect
differences in beats which before that
were not known TO exist The treat
ment of heart disease by sound became
an important matter in the medical
profession. However, physicians knew
more of the existence of the condition
than they did of a means of alternating
It.
Professor Schott of Bad Nauheim,
Germany, began some years ago TO
treat heart disease, not as most physi-
rians had treated it-that Is. with the
fear that any exertion might prove
fatal-but with the idea that as a
physical organ the heart was suscePti-