The Washington times., 1915-02-16
THE TIMES DAILY MAGAZINE PAG
Some Secrets OF YourO1un
Heart Which You MayNot
Even KnO7v About Yourself!
BY DIR. LEONARD KEENE H1RsHBERG.
by Newspaper Feature Servlce. Incl

with blood The veins which enter: thu
two chambers OF the upper story Of the
heart really incite II to beat The vein.
are IN this respect the propcllers of the
When the upper story-the two "auri.
cies,' so-called-contract or the ventri.
::s.,sn cies contract: the heart is said to be in
Is like a sponge squeezed dry. II then
relaxes and stops as the scarlet stream
Of life enters its upper and lower story.
IT Is now ike sponge filed with fluid.
The difference between sponre ano
a heart Is that the heart has TOUR large
cavities-and few small channels with
which which to nourish itself-and is com.
while sponge Is dead. inert mass
OF texture full of irregular holes. Boih
soak up fluids. but the heart needs
no rSu outside help w whereas % sponge does
that enter the top Of the heart and
stops at the arteries which leave the
heart, travels at the rate Of about
twenty t,yna -, feet a second soIs At the sam.
blood scurrying hither and thither tc
nourish the tissues, it also generator
electricity.
Some Exploded Errors.
To speak in terms electrical. wher
the heart contracts its potential dif.
fers from the heart muscle when It is
at rest. If an ~"electrometer'' is con.
nected with two spots on the heart,
the electrical current can be proved
Advantage is now taken of this fact
to diagnose and treat a legion Of diff.
ferent kinds OF heart ailments. 1t IL
not necessary to touch the heart di.
rectly, the hands, the chest, and other
structures will do as we'll.
When you touch the neighborhood OF
hn loEt .tl
usually feel your heart. 1t is the apex
on the heart you feel, because, contrary
to popular notions, the heart is almos,
in the middle Of the trunk. Doctors
that this apex Of the heart is felt wher
the heart contracts in .systole."
1t Is now known that the apex beat
or protrusion of the heart occurs at
rests against the wall of Jour torso
If the apex beat is strong. weak, rum.
bling. tripping. scaly. absent, or eXag.
gerated. each distinction and its recon.
formation to a doctor.
Another fallacy was exploded by the
knowledge gained in the last fifteen
Years that few II any of the many kinds
Of muscle. valvular and other heart dis.
eases are fatal or even serious. The
heart can really withstand more dis
turbances and Affections than can the
kidneys. liver or stomach.
Another pleasant feature OF the bAa'
Of the heart is its production Of musical
or mar musical noises. The old nurser,
rhyme of rub dub. dub, three men In
a tub is actually the very song sung by
a sound-of which there are few II any
heart.
Two sounds are heard in a good car.
diac muscle. One Is present at the be-
ginning the other at the end of the
lower story's beat or "systole." A long
deep basso sound occurs first. then the
shorter and slightly higher pitched nots
follows. thus: Rub dub in q bass cle1
with a musical interval OF a minor thir6
between.
PHYSICIANS with musical ears are hes
fitted to be heart specialists. because al
sorts Of notifications of these tones anC
overtones are associated with each par
ticular kind of heart defect. 1t would BE-
amusing. II t were not pathetic, to see
| a Eion who may have written an out-of.
date book IN malaria. and absolutely
tcne deaf. posing as an ''authority" or
the heart.
The heartbeat has been respectively
credited to the nerves, TO the muscles
to both: the action Of lime, potash and
soda in the blood: to an enzyme or fer
ment; to ''vitalism.' and to many other
automatic sources in the living tissues.
True enough the heart can be made &c
beat almost indefinitely. as Or. Alexi,
Carrel and others have shown, II Ger.
tain foods or chemicals In water are
kept running through its chambers but
the fact still remains that physiologist.
! have not yet wholly discovered the v nv
and the how OF the heart beat.