The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-02-08
CAMPAIGN AGAINST
HEART DISEASE
Harvard Professor Advises
Public Education to Com
bat Trouble
CAUSES MORE DEATH
THAN TUBERCULOSIS
Urges Removal of Diseased Tonsils. Pre-
lection Against Scarlet Fever and
Diphtheria and Careful Diagnosis
Heart Murmurs Jrnimportant.

BOSTON, Feb. S.-Dr. w. H. Robey
professor of medicine Mt the Harvard
medical school. in a lecture in the public
course at the school. spoke on Causes of
Heart Failure. To the intelligent physi-
clan, he said, the term heart failure does
not mean the death of the heart. but the
failure of that organ to do its work, and
it was with that definition in mind that
ne discussed his topic
The prevention of heart disease, he
said. is n great problem and one that de-
serves to be met by public education. as
has the problem of tuberculosis. The
latter. he said. has yielded to heart dis
ease It's position as the leading cause of
death, due TO the'campaign of public edu-
cation that has been carried on to pre-
vent tuberculosis.
Leading Causes of Death.
Heart disease tuberculosis and cancer
are now. the leading causes of deaths in
this country. whereas. a few years ago
topped the scale.
Among the causes of rheumatism of the
heart he mentioned rheumatic fever. st.
Nitus's dance and tonSilitis, all of which
he said. have power TO attack the heart
1t. NituS'S dance has often been claSsed
and treated as a distinct disease. but, he
lin the opinion of many of us
it Is one of the symptoms complex of
acute articular rheumatism"
He dwelt on the Importance of the
question of the removal of enlarged ton
sis, saying that rheumatism is cause of
heart disease and tOnSilitiS is often fol-
lowed by rheumatism. Though not insist
ing that everyone with enlarged tonsils
should have them removed, he maintained
that repeated attacks of tonsilitiS should
be stopped. To those who dread 10 have
their tonsils removed he announced that
the treatment of tonSils with radium is
coming into vogue, and while he did not
wish to say or to be understood as saving
that he was an advocate of this method
because it is so new that most physicians
do not know much about it. he stated
nevertheless one application of 20 min
ltes will reduce an enlarged tonsil so that
i is barely noticeable. He supplemented
this by the precautionary statement that
4 small hard tOnsile may be as great a
menace as a large and 'boggy" one.
Urges Protection.
Protection against ,arlet fever and
iiphtheria. he said, will reduce the num-
Der of eases of heart disease Nobody to-
lay believes, he added. in the old-time
oily of letting such a disease run through
l w lf'lt fanny vi tUllNEen~ ON the lneOrN
hat they Will have il eventually, why {
not nowE He emphasized the impor- Z
lance of the work that is being done. par /
tieularly in Boston, to protect school
children from diseases by attention to
heir noses, thrOats and teeth
Teeth. he continued, are an important
cause of heart disease While not as
many teeth are drawn as at one time, he
said gold capped tooth must be looked
upon with suspicion, as such a tooth is !
always dead tooth and as such it is (
always insensitive unless pus FORMS
He quoted the late DIR. Osler as saving
hat syphilis causes more heart disease (
than ubercular faint does. the effect of
this disease on the heart being either
acute or chronic, more often the latter.
so that the effect may be deferred for IL
1r 20 years. He praised the campaign of
The United States public health service
% stamp out this disease.
The heart may suffer, he added from