OCR Text |
Show GOOD HEALTH The slow heart. A somewhat rare condition, more common in men than in women. A medical authority defines the slow heart as a condition where the beats do not exceed forty or fifty a minute. A relation is traced between large bodies, having in many instances slowness or deliberation of motion and the slow heart. It is mentioned that the elephant and the horse have, respectively, only twenty-eight and forty beats per minute. Dr. Taylor has found brachycardia, or slow heart to be present in tall men, recording six ?? here there was great muscular ??, each man being over six feet in height. It is more common in males ??? than advanced life. It has been found to bear some relation to the condition of the stomach, being occasionally present after eating and in persons who are dyspeptic. A number of causes of brachycardia, in strictly diseased states, are cited. Among them it is found to be present where there is degeneration of the heart wall, pure and simple, or degeneration attendant upon valvular disease; in diseased coronary arteries, causing an imperfect blood supply; in blood diseases; after fever, when the period of excitement has passed; as a result of certain drugs, as tobacco, cocaine, aconite, nitrate of potash. Of cases of normally slow heart, one of the most celebrated is that of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose pulse rate, according to Corvisart, was under forty beats to the minute. |