158 THE CIRCULATION 



sitting the beats of the heart number seventy-one, standing 

 erect will increase them to eighty-one, and lying down will 

 lower them to sixty-six. (Head Note 8.) 



26. The modifying influence of mental emotions is very 

 powerful. Sudden excitement of feeling will cause the heart to 

 palpitate, or throb violently. Depressing emotions sometimes 

 temporarily interrupt its movements, and the person faints in 

 consequence. Extremes of joy, grief, or fear have occasionally 

 suspended the heart's action entirely, and thus caused death. 

 The rate of the heart-beat may be naturally above or below 

 seventy-two. Thus it is stated that the pulse of the savage is 

 always slower than that of the civilized man. Bonaparte and 

 Wellington were very much alike in their heart pulsations, 

 which were less than fifty in the case of each. (Bead Note 9.) 



8. The Heart is Injured by Over-exertion. "During exertion, if the 

 heart is not oppressed, its movements, though rapid and forcible, are reg- 

 ular and equal. But when it becomes embarrassed, the pulse-beats are 

 quick, unequal, and at last become irregular, indicating injury to the 

 organ. All great and sudden efforts are to be carefully avoided ; exces- 

 sive exercise often produces palpitation, and sometimes enlargement and 

 valvular disease of the heart." Huxley. 



"No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort; a great 

 thing can only be done by a great man, and he does it without effort. 

 The body's work and the head's work are to be done quietly, and com- 

 paratively without effort. Neither limbs or brain are ever to be strained 

 to their utmost ; that is not the way in which the greatest quantity of 

 work is to be got out of them ; they are never to be worked furiously, but 

 with tranquillity and constancy. We are to follow the plough from sunrise 

 to sunset, but not to pull in race-boats at the twilight ; we shall get no 

 fruit of that kind of work only disease of the heart. ' ' Ruskin. 



9. Fainting. "When the heart suddenly ceases to act, fainting or 

 swooning is very apt to take place. This takes place for the reason that 

 the brain feels most speedily the lack of its supply of blood. Many cir- 

 cumstances may cause a faint such as a fright, joy, excitement, the 

 sight of blood, or the breathing of foul air ; or it may be due to disease 

 of the heart. In some persons, fainting becomes a kind of habit ; they 

 fall into a fainting fit on very slight agitation. In them the appearances 

 are much worse than the reality, especially to those who are not familiar 

 with the ailment. But persons who faint after exhaustion, fatigue, fast- 

 ing, or anguish, require prompt attention. The ordinary signs are great 



26. Mental emotions? Sudden excitement? Excessive joy? The heart-beat rate? 

 Bonaparte and Wellington ? 



