Daily Kennebec journal., 1914-03-02
THE HUMAN HEART.
Work Of This Marvellous TwofoId
Pumping Machine.

When the doctor puts his ear to your
chest or applies the stethoscope, which
only conducts the sounds more clearly,
what does he hear? The sound OF
the normal heart is like the pronuncia-
ton of the syllables 'lub-dup' close to
each ohter These syllables are heard
in quick succession, and then comes
a pause-the diastole or resting period
of the great force pump. The sound
"lub" is that of the blood flowing
out under muscular pressure. and the
dup" is the closing Of the aortic
valves. If. this sound dup" Is not
heard it shows that the aortic valves
are destroyed or not working.
The latest explanation of this f1rst
sound, Tub" is that 1t is caused by
the muscular contraction of the heart
and the impulse of the heart against
the chest wall. The first sound Is
heard more clearly over the apex OF
the heart, the point of the chest near
est to the ventricle. The second SOUND
is best heard over the aortic valves,
which lie beneath the left side Of the
chest just by the third rib.
If YOU close a door with great force
the slam is very loud, and if the ten
sion in the aorta is very high the
sound dup" is louder than usual.
This is most important to the physi-
clan. for he then knows that there IS
high arterial tension, due to what Is
termed an aneurism.
If the sound Tub" is weaker than
normal il would indicate a weakness
of the heart muscles and this Is the
case in fevers. In typhoid fever, for In
stance, when this first sound is very
weak. we know that the heart is so
u,eat, as to make the case alarming.
A heart is said to have a "murmur
when the sharp dup" disappears and
the listening physician hears soften-
"A noise called a "rnurrnur" II you try
to saw dup" with your lips open the
sound uttered will be like that the doc
tor hears in the diseased heart whose
valves do not close properly. The
sound produced is something ike
duff" and if the mitral valve does not
work well the first syllable Is softeneo
into inf" If both valves work poor
lv the sound is "luff -duff-luf dun,
hut If both valves are very much out
of order the sound is like that OF d
bellows, .'oho Ohio"
Most persons speak of the heart as
II is two hearts joined together, the
right and the left heart. Ihe rish.
sends the blood through the lungs SO
that it may be aerated, or acteo upon
by rho oxygen in the inhaled air, while
the left heart sends the piooo thlous"
tho body in order to nourish the us
sues. 49,
Roth of these hearts receive the
blood from the large veins INTO
auricles, which by contracting sem,
the blood on into the yentrlcles' am.
when these powerful muscles coh,raeH
the right ventricle pumps the piooo
into the pulmonary artery on the way
to the lungs and from the lett Feh>
tricle into the aorta, which distributes
the blood all over the BODY, SO that
after having nourished the nerves anu
muscles it returns through the VEINS
to the heart, there to be pumped into
the lungs for publication by the oSy-
gen before again passing through the
system.
The difference in the sounds or the
right and left ventricles is traced 10
the difference in resistance or the
aorta and the pulmonary artery. Inc
pulmonary artery resists with only one
third the strength of the aorta, so tho
pumping force required is less and the
noise of the closing gates is that much
less.
1t is true. then, that when the physi-
clan listens to the beating OF pa
tents heart through his stethoscope
the heart speaks to him in unmistah-
able language. When 1t plainly say.
Tub dup" he knows that all Is Wen
with this important organ, and ne pats
the patient on tn eshoulder SAVING
Nothing serious; you'll be all right IN
a day or two When, however, the
heart says 'lub-duff he knows tnat
the aortic valve is not working prop
erly and takes the proper steps TO cor
rect it. When the heart says "iun- Dup
he is sure that the mitral valves are
out of order, and he tries to reach
them.
When the heart says "luff dun" ne
draws a solemn face, for both valves
are out of order. and when it says
'oho- oho' he digs down into his bag
and goes to work at once, for all is