The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-10-18
SMALL BOY HAS
COFFEE HEART
Child of Eight is in City
Hospital Slowly Re-
gaining Health.
HEART BEATS TOO FAST
Muscle Was Wearing Itself OUT
Drank a Dozen Cups Day.

Excessive coffee drinking, City Hos
pital physicians say is the cause
of little Johnnie Murphy's heart dis
ease. Although only eight years old,
he has one of the worst cases of heart
lesion that has ever come TO the in
stitution.
Wnen he entered the hospital the
chIIdS heart was beating 100 TO the
minute, just twice the normal rae
for a cniId of his age. FOR one month
ne has had no conee and his neart
action has been reauced to 100 beats
a minute.
r'or two years the child has been
drinking from n1nei 20 Twelve cups OF
suong comee every day. lie began to
complain OF pans as II needles We're
sticking III his heart, and for year
has slept scarcely three hours a night,
and then only when sitting prOpped
up in q cnaIr beside an open window
Johnnie aid not care tor things TO
eat; coffee was all the food he craved,
ana e1,cept when cake or candy was
given him, he took no other nourlSh-
ment. AS he was sick and not expect
ed to recover, he was given all the
coffee he desired until a physician
saw him and advised that he be sent
to City Hospital.
Heart Was OverworE<ed.
Every beat Of the child'S heart could
be plainly seen. TO one ineXperlenc-
ed in medicine, it would seem that the
heart extended over tWo-thirdS of the
chest region, and the pulsation is OF
a heavy, prolonged character, quite
different from the sharp, quick beat
| of the normal heart.
The boy is small for his age, and
efforts of physicians nave been 20
build up his strength. His treatment
has been largely tonics and heart reg
ulating medicines, such as strophan-
tus or digitalis.
AS the heart, like other muscles,
| can stand only a given amount OF
WORK. hospitar internes estimate that
! the 90 beats Il minute he is now being
saved by his abstinence from coffee
vii prolong his life 10 to ? years.
Iae heart of a man who dies at
! 20 years has beaten zoe million times,
| and if the normal beat is ~. little
Johnny Murphy was living twice as
| fast as any normal person. When he
| first entered the hospital, physicians
prophesied that ne could only live Il
few weeks. Under the treatment AMI
| total abstinence from coffee he has
so improved that his chances for
long life are considered good il the
| heart lesion and degeneration already
| set up can be healed
| He is a son of John Murphy of 1l6
South Fourteenth street Mrs Muir
| phv told the physicians that none of
| her other children mad showed signs
of heart disease nor had they mark
ed fondness for coffee.-St. Louis
| Post Dispatch.
Literally thousands of people suffer
more or less from heart weakness
| caused by coffee, ana with some, even
one cup a day will bring on heart
| trouble.
The heart that has been only slight
| ly attacked by coffee will protest ana
make its weak condition known under
| Slight eXertion, and it is plainly Il
| dangerous condition to get into. 1t
! is a curious fact that coffee does not
always attack the heart but goes after
the stomach, liver and bowels of some
and leaves the heart alone
1t is plainly classed as an active tom
| ic and its work shows somewhere Oh
most users. 1t is easy to rid ones
self of the habit by using wel!-breWcd
Postum Coffee. The change in symp-
| toms is shown in a day or two as Il
rule and that change shows the user
! to a certainty that coffee was the
destroyer
1t is useless to warn some people,
even when it is easy 90 quit and be
well again. So they peg along, sick
and miserable, charNing their ails
| to food" least Wii1d,' "heredity,
and wnatnot until some day the stroke
comes when abused nature reaches
the limit. It's easy to be we'll if one
cares for the joy of health. One of
! the plain sure, well-built, and Well
kept highways, with sign boards on
| each side, is the Postum routs.
There's a reason.