ANGINA PECTORIS. 



It rises from three to five feet in height, and has a 

 fragrant odour, and a very warm bitterish, aromatic 

 taste, and these qualities are equally common to 

 the leaves, seeds and root ; the latter, however, 

 It the part chiefly used, although the stalk, leaves, 

 and seeds, are occasionally employed. Though the 

 plant is only biennial, Loudon says, " it may be 

 made to continue several years, by cutting over the 

 Mower stem before it ripens into seed, in which 

 case it immediately pushes out below." The root, 

 too, by this plan is increased in size. 



The root and seeds are stomachic and carmina- 

 tive, and are used in dyspepsia and flatulence, and 

 in the belly-ache of infants. The dose for an adult 

 is from half a dram to three, of the powder of either 

 the seeds or roots ; and for a child, the same as of 

 anise seed. A distilled water from the seeds is 

 likewise employed ; and a spirit, which when 

 sweetened, sometimes proves a too agreeable dram 

 for the nervous and hypochondriac invalid. The 

 young and tender stalks, and the root, are candied ; 

 indeed the latter, when prepared in this way, forms 

 a safe and agreeable sweetmeat, scarcely inferior to 

 candied ginger. It is easily prepared by boiling it 

 in syrup, and covering it up with the same liquid. 

 One pound of the root yields one dram of essential 

 oil, which may be used for the same purposes as oil 

 of anise. The root soon becomes worm eaten. It 

 was formerly cultivated for its leaf stalks, which 

 were blanched and eaten as celery. A few of them 

 cut in small pieces form an agreeable addition to 

 rhubarb or gooseberry pies or tarts. 



Two pounds of the seeds bruised, and put in a 

 still, with two gallons of water, and half a pint of 

 rectified spirit, or French brandy, and distilling off 

 one gallon, forms an excellent domestic cordial, 

 which, when sweetened, may be given to children 

 in dozes of a spoonfull when they cry from the 

 belly-ache. A simple water is likewise distilled 

 from the fresh leaves, but is not considered equally 

 agreeable to that yielded by the seeds or roots. 

 We, however, consider Angelica a plant well en- 

 titled to a place in the cottage kitchen garden, as 

 well as in the gardens of the middle and higher 

 classes of society. 



ANGINA PECTORIS ; a disease, the symp- 

 toms of which are an acute constrictory pain felt 

 at the lower part of the sternum, or breast bone, 

 inclining to the left side and extending to the 

 arm of the same side, attended with great anxiety, 

 and the same constrictory pain in the region of 

 the heart, difficulty of breathing, tendency to 

 fainting, and a feeling of approaching dissolution, 

 the latter sensation more acute and severe on 

 the patient walking up a hill or rising ground, 

 feeling incapable of proceeding without aid. This 

 affection sometimes comes on after a meal, or 

 subsequent to a longer than usual abstinence, 

 and in course of time the paroxysms recur in 

 the night, after the first sleep. Mental anxiety, 

 derangement of the digestive organs, flatulence and 

 irritations, a torpid state of the bowels, and occa- 

 sional spasms about the chest, are the most ordi- 

 nary forerunners of an attack of this disease. The 

 sense of constriction and suffocation, however, is 

 different from that which takes place in asthma, 

 being rather referred to the heart than the lungs. 

 The pulse is not unfrequently irregular and inter- 

 mitting during the fit, but in other cases there is 

 no perceptible alteration. Angina pectoris prin- 

 cipally attacks the male sex, and the individual is 

 sometimes carried off by the violence of a paroxysm, 



which varies in length or duration from a few 

 minutes to an hour or upwards ; nay, is occasion- 

 ally extended to several hours. In the latter case 

 the disease is of a chronic form, and the fits more 

 frequently occurring during the night, when the 

 patient is in bed, while in the acute or more 

 speedily fatal character of the disease, the attack 

 occurs during the day, and most ordinarily when 

 the individual is walking up an acclivity, as already 

 noticed. 



There is, perhaps, no disease, respecting the 

 causes of which physicians have been more divided 

 in opinion. The fact is, that it is only of late, or 

 within a period of little more than fifty years, that 

 this affection became recognised as a distinct dis- 

 ease, and the variety of appearances presented by 

 the post mortem examinations of the bodies of those 

 who have been carried off by the complaint, may, 

 in a great measure, account for the difference of 

 opinion that exists on the subject. Facts, how- 

 ever, go to prove, that the middle aged, or those 

 who are on the after-side of forty-five years, and 

 who are of robust and corpulent habit, are most 

 liable to the disease, although some have found it 

 equally common in persons of a spare habit. There 

 can be no doubt that the gouty, rheumatic, indo- 

 lent, sedentary, studious, and especially those who 

 have been long subjected to great mental anxiety, 

 are the most frequent subjects of angina, while 

 there are lew instances in which females have 

 ever been subjected to its influence. 



Walking, especially at a quick pace, against the 

 wind, up a hill, or rapidly ascending stairs, after a 

 full meal, or speaking or reading aloud in the same 

 circumstances, are all powerful excitants of this 

 affection. 



Several continental and some American physi- 

 cians, among the later Dr Chapman of Philadelphia, 

 consider it as a nervous affection, while Dr Gintrac, 

 who, for the last ten years, has devoted consider- 

 able attention to the disease, believes that it is an 

 expression of suffering, originating in the aorta, or 

 vessels in the heart, and in proof of this declares, 

 that he has collected thirty cases of angina pectoris, 

 in which the aorta was either thickened, or dilated. 

 or cartilaginous, or ossified, and that he has met 

 with only ten or twelve in which the organ had 

 undergone no alteration ; and among the latter 

 cases he adds, there was not one which bore the 

 character of a case incontestibly belonging to the 

 disease. 



Among the cases of inflammation of the aorta 

 published by authors, there are probably some in 

 which the characteristic pain of angina pectoris has 

 not been mentioned. Dr G. thinks this depends 

 on the fact, that the history of inflammation in the 

 large vascular trunks has been scarcely sketched, 

 and that greater part of the observations have 

 been made on patients labouring at the same time 

 under other affections Gaz. Medicals. 



Subsequent observations will either overturn or 

 confirm the truth of these opinions, but as we con- 

 sider them deserving the consideration of young 

 practitioners and students, who may consult this 

 work, we think it right to give them a more ex- 

 tended publicity. 



Asthma is more readily to be mistaken for this 

 disease than any other, but a careful perusal of the 

 article Asthma will enable the most inexperienced 

 to distinguish between them. In asthma, the con- 

 strictory pain in the sternum, extending to the arm, 

 already described as symptomatic of angina pet 



