HEART-BURIAL 



HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN 



of saline purges, a useful method 

 when dropsy is present. 



In severe cases, when the veins 

 are engorged, bleeding may be re- 

 sorted to. For stimulating the 

 action of the heart, digitalis is a 

 particularly valuable drug. Iron 

 and strychnine are often of great 

 service. When dropsy is excessive, 

 the fluid may be drawn off by 

 puncturing the legs, or tapping the 

 abdomen. Pain, gastric symptoms, 

 cough, and sleeplessness may re- 

 quire special treatment, but will 

 all be relieved by measures directed 

 towards the condition of the heart. 

 Besides changes in the valves, 

 the muscular wall of the heart may 

 suffer from disease. Acute dilata- 

 tion of the heart may be the result 

 of severe muscular effort, or may 

 occur in the course of other dis- 

 eases. Dilatation or thickening of 

 the walls of the heart (hyper- 

 trophy) also occurs with valvular 

 disease of the heart. Fatty degen- 

 eration of the heart is a condition 

 frequently met with following 

 wasting diseases and prolonged 

 fever, and in old age. 



Other forms of degeneration may 

 follow disease or blocking of the 

 coronary arteries, i.e. the arteries 

 which supply the heart muscle 

 with blood. The symptoms of dis- 

 ease of the heart muscle are short- 

 ness of breath on exertion, weak, 

 irregular pulse, faintness, and pain 

 in the chest. Sometimes there 

 may be no serious symptoms for 

 years, and then sudden death may 

 result from syncope. A person 

 suffering from myocardial disease 

 should lead a careful, healthy life. 



Functional Affections 

 Angina pectoris is a term ap- 

 plied to sudden attacks of agonis- 

 ing pain in the heart. The attack 

 may be brought on by exertion, 

 emotion, flatulent distension of the 

 stomach, exposure to cold, and 

 other causes. Thickening of the 

 coronary arteries is almost always 

 present. Persons suffering from 

 this affection should live a quiet 

 life, avoiding muscular effort and 

 mental distress. Attacks are relieved 

 by inhaling nitrite of amyl. 



Functional affections of the 

 heart form an important class of 

 disorder. These are conditions in 

 which no organic changes can be 

 detected in the heart or, at all 

 events, no changes sufficient to 

 account for the symptoms. Never- 

 theless, the patient suffers from 

 pain over the heart, shortness of 

 breath, dizziness and feelings of 

 taintness. Palpitation is frequent, 

 and the pulse rate may be raised 

 to 140 or more. Slowing of the 

 pulse is very much less frequent. 

 This condition is due to disturb- 

 ance of the nervous system, i.e. is 



a neurosis, and is usually the result 

 of severe mental or physical shock. 

 A large number of cases have 

 been seen in soldiers, sometimes 

 following the effects of being in or 

 near an explosion, and sometimes 

 being simply the result of break- 

 down under prolonged strain. 

 Many persons suffering from this 

 condition are convinced that they 

 have serious disorder of the heart, 

 and live in a state of constant ap- 

 prehension, which itself tends to 

 keep up the disturbed action. The 

 essential factor in the treatment is 

 to cure the general nervous dis- 

 turbance, and to satisfy the patient 

 that he has no serious disease of 

 his heart. See Anatomy; Elec- 

 tricity ; Man. 



Heart-burial. Burial of the 

 heart apart from the body. This 

 practice dates from remote times, 

 and in Europe was apparently 

 most common in the 12th and 13th 

 centuries. It was possibly due to 

 the notion that the heart was the 

 seat of the noble qualities, a mo- 

 tive perhaps reinforced later by a 

 pious desire to secure the prayers of 

 more than one community for the 

 soul. Many of the Crusaders had 

 their hearts buried in Jerusalem. 



Among kings of England whose 

 hearts have been buried apart from 

 their bodies are Richard I, whose 

 heart was buried at Rouen ; Henry 

 I and Henry III, both in France ; 

 Edward I, at Jerusalem ; and 

 James II, at Chaillot, near Paris. 

 The heart of Eleanor, queen of 

 Edward I, was buried at Lincoln. 

 The heart of Robert Bruce, after 

 many adventures, was eventually 

 buried at Melrose Abbey instead of 

 at Jerusalem, as he had wished : 

 the heart of Paul Whitehead, sec- 

 retary of the Medmenham " Hell- 

 Fire " Club, was buried with much 

 pomp in the Le Despenser mauso- 

 leum at West Wycombe, Bucks, in 

 1775 ; and that of Daniel O'Con- 

 nell at Rome. The practice was 

 prohibited by Pope Boniface VIII, 

 but again permitted by Benedict 



XL See Burial r , 



Customs. 



Hearth. Word 

 generally used to 

 signify the part of 

 the floor of a 

 room on which 

 the fire is laid. 

 Usually in the 

 chimney, it is 

 built of brick, 

 stone, or metal. 

 It has come to 

 mean the house 

 itself, in such ex- 

 pressions as 

 "hearth and 

 home." 



In metallurgy the term is ap 

 plied to the most elementary forms 

 of furnace used for the extraction 

 of metals, and to the beds of more 

 elaborate structures, i.e. those parts 

 on which rests the ore or metal 

 under treatment. The floor of a 

 smith's forge is also called a hearth, 

 while the term is occasionally used 

 for a ship's galley. See Furnace. 



Hearth Tax. Tax of 2s. on 

 every hearth introduced in Eng- 

 land in 1662. There were certain 

 exemptions, the very poor cottages, 

 for instance, but the impost was 

 very oppressive and was abolished 

 in 1689, although then producing 

 170,000 a year. Its unpopularity 

 was due partly to the fact that it 

 was farmed out, and the people re- 

 sented the visits of the chimney- 

 men, as they were called. A some- 

 what similar f umage, or smoke tax, 

 appears to have been levied in 

 England in Anglo-Saxon times. 



Heart of Midlothian, THE. 

 Scott's seventh novel, the second of 

 the Tales of My Landlord series, 

 and adjudged by good critics the 

 best of the Waverleys. It is a story 

 of infinite pathos, with a heroine in 

 humble life (Jeanie Deans), whose 

 sweet naturalness and devotion to 

 her erring half-sister Effie have 

 moved the hearts of novel-readers 

 all over the world since the book 

 was first published, in June, 1818 



Its principal features are Effie 

 Deans's romance, her trial for 

 child-murder, the true-blue Pres- 

 byterianism of her father, " Douce 

 Davie," the self-sacrifice of the 

 deputy-schoolmaster, Reuben But- 

 ler, and his courtship of Jeanie ; 

 the quaint characters of the two 

 lairds of Dumbiedikes ; the fateful 

 figure of the ne'er-do-well, Staun 

 ton ; the tragedy of Meg Murdock 

 son and her daughter, Madge Wild- 

 fire; and the picture of the Por- 

 teous Riot (1736), with which the 

 story opens. The title is taken 

 from the old Edinburgh Tolbooth 

 (prison). Daniel Terry dramatised 

 the novel in 1819. See Deans. Effie 



Heart ol Midlotman. The old ioibooth, Edinburgh; tne 

 site is now marked by a stone heart in the causeway 



