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Blood Pressure in Man. 



n. E. Hoffman, 



(Abstract.) 



The paper consists of a tabulation of the readings of blood pressure 

 in 220 men with age, day and hour of day, mental condition, and the con- 

 dition of arteries, lieart and Ividneys ; with conclusions as to what factors 

 influence and ai"e influenced by the blood pressure in man. 



As the subjects were unfamiliar with the procedure it itself inci'eased 

 the blood pressure in most cases so that the readings are high for them. 

 The highest, taking the systolic as most reliable, was 270 in an old man 

 with beady arteries; the lowest, SS; thirteen were above 200; six were 

 below 100 ; the averages for the series was 134 mmg Hg by the Rivi-Rocci 

 mercurial sphygmomanometer, Stanton's form. 



Age, by the changes in the blood vessels, is the most constant factor in 

 change of blood pressure, which increases with age ; the condition of the 

 arteries is a determining factor ; the more rigid their walls the higher 

 the blood pressure ; all with high pressure have rigid arteries ; coincidently, 

 casts and albumen occurred in the urine, indicative of lesion in the kid- 

 neys. Valvular lesion of the heart lessening its efiiciency raises the sys- 

 tolic pressure. 



In stupor invariably the blood pressure was low, as in the cases of 

 catalepsy, which gave the low records ; likewise in dementia the blood 

 pressure is relatively low ; also in maniacal conditions it is decreased, ap- 

 proaching its normal with recovery ; and contrawise the blood pressure is 

 raised in melancholia and in states marked with delusions of persecution ; 

 in general paresis it varies according to the mental condition. This corre- 

 spondence of mental condition to blood pressure is tolerably uniform, 



