BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



of the heart and to the lining of the heart with disastrous 

 results. Venereal disorders sometimes produce strange 

 changes in tissues of the heart. As man grows older, the 

 strain on this muscle becomes greater and greater. It 

 attempts to compensate for the strain by enlarging and 

 by stretching, and its function is modified. There are many 

 unsolved riddles yet to be answered before diseases of the 

 heart will be brought fully under medical control. 



No one knows exactly why the germs from the throat or 

 teeth tend to localize in the heart in certain cases and to 

 produce distinctive changes. This has to do, perhaps, 

 with the constitution or hereditary stock of the individual. 

 It may be concerned with the fact that the patient lives 

 in a damp basement or near a river. It may be due to the 

 fact that he is undernourished and has not had sufficient 

 sunlight. It may be a certain form of a general group of 

 germs that does this deadly damage rather than all of 

 the germs of that group. It may be a combination of any 

 such circumstances. Only when all of the facts are known 

 and when the non-essential information is discarded will 

 it be possible to prevent this type of heart disease and to 

 supply proper treatment early enough to secure control. 

 It is, of course, exceedingly important that patients come 

 to the diagnostician soon enough to permit him to give 

 proper advice. If the patient comes too late, such significant 

 changes have already taken place that it is impossible 

 to be of any real service. Education of the public is increas- 

 ingly necessary to bring about frequent and careful ex- 

 amination of the condition of the heart. 



In the past, patients with heart disease merely took to 

 their beds and waited for the inevitable death, or con- 

 tinued their occupations until some too severe strain 

 brought fatality. Modern study attempts to establish the 

 exact capacity of the heart and to find for the individual an 

 occupation suited to his condition. 



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