The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1910-01-20

in all respects as the human heart 1t is
without question the most powerful of all
machines. 1t oils itself, replaces missing
and worn parts and never skips beat
or calls for help in making its repairs
unless disease or old age creeps in upon
it. There are 500 separate bands or
muscular fibre in the body, of which num-
Der the heart is one. Yet it does more
than one-third of all the actual muscular
work possible for the entire 500.
One of the most remarkable exhibitions
of mechanical force ever known by any
piece of machinery was that of the locomo-
tive of the Pacific compound type that
developed sufficient force to lift its own
weight $500 feet vertically in period
of one hour If the heart should expand
all its force in lifting its own weight
vertically it would rise straight from the
earth into space at the rate of nearly
four miles in sixty minutes. Yet the play
of its values and the rhythm of its
throb are so perfect that they never
fail until disease or death from acct
dent causes the wheels of life to stand
still.
1t is the last of the three orphans
known as "The Tripod of Life" to give
way to the great change. The lungs
and brain are usually inert before the
last feeble hutter of the heart has died
away. So long as a stir is perceptible
there it is possible to kindle the nearly
extinguished spark. In the bodies of rep
tiles and all life of that order the heart
will continue to beat many minutes after
the head has been removed. By the arti-
fetal injection of a solution of common salt
the heart of reptile or a turtle can be
kept beating for hours after life is in
reality extinct
By reason of the steady flow from
the heart of the blood the bodily tenn
perature never varies fraction of
degree from the normal of ninety-eight
degrees. Veins, arteries and capiilaries
act as the distributing pipes of the hot-wat-
er system, although in this case the liquid
is blood. When the. temperature jumps
downward ever so little, or sinks even
fraction of degree, we have a feve,
or a chill. Strange to say, the rise Of
temperature amounting to not more thar
six degrees from the normal warmth OF
the liquid the heart is steadily pump
ing means death within a few hours.
But the heart de6es the cold-blooded
analysis of the mathematical scientist.
Its beats vary with sex, age and the life
habits of the individual. Napcleon's
heart is described by his doctor as. beating
but forty times in one minute. Insurance
experts in the employ of the big COM
panies assert that many perfectly healthy
men and women have hearts that will av-
erage over 100 contractions and expan-
sions to the minute. AS general rule the
heart beats faster in women than in men,
in short persons than it does in folk
Of the middle age.
Under the sudden impulse of ter
rible fear the heart almost stops beat
ing; sometimes entirely so. A sensation
of shame makes the heart pour the blood
to the surface at a rapid rate One
man is mentioned in the medical annals
of the world who was able to start and
stop his heart almost at will. He was
wild and fighting Irshman, a Colonel
Townsend, of Dublin. While engaged
in demonstrating his power before a
number of eminent Irish and English
medical men he lost his life int the act.
All the assembled medical d.:gnslaries were
unable to get tie organ beating again.