latory system is the parent of many evils, and may evidence 

 itself in many ways. The hollow, propelling muscle the 

 heart itself may inherently lack the necessary vigour and 

 tone indispensable for the normal discharge of its functions, 

 the coats of the arteries and veins may likewise be inherently 

 deficient in tonicity, and the blood itself may be deficient in 

 quality and quantity. How protean are the effects of such 

 causes, and how infinite are the degrees in which individuals 

 may be affected by them ! And yet in proportion to the 

 degree of cardiac or vascular inherited weakness, and in 

 proportion to the quality and quantity of the circulatory 

 fluid, will the individuals so affected be subject to the functional 

 derangement or textural degenerations to which these in- 

 herent deficiencies predispose. Syncope, palpitation, inter- 

 mittent action of the heart, angina pectoris, neuralgia cordis, 

 cardiac spasm, oedema, chilblains, and the whole range of 

 affections involving the complexion, from sthenic plethora 

 to asthenic anoemia, are but a few of the morbid conditions 

 resulting from functional derangement of the heart and its 

 vessels, or of the vascular supply; and to these may be 

 added the various affections originating from vaso-motor and 

 vaso-inhibitory derangement of arteries, and from thickened, 

 weakened, contracted, or dilated vessels generally. 



Roughly estimating the causes of diseases of the heart 

 and the general circulatory system, they may be said to 

 consist in inflammation acute or chronic hypertrophy, 

 atrophy, dilatation of such forms of structural degeneration 

 as the fatty, calcareous, and amyloid, and of neoplasmata, 

 such as the carcinomatous, tubercular, syphilitic, and parasitic. 

 Are all individuals equally, subject to these, and if not, why 

 not? Simply because the cardiac and vascular tissues of 

 many individuals are insusceptible, whilst others are, more 



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