292 THE LAWS OP ORGANIC 



vessels is necessary for its production ; and it has 

 also been observed, that ossification of the corona- 

 ry arteries has been detected in individuals who 

 were exempt from every symptom of the disease. 



If ossification has any effect upon the heart, 

 it must diminish the freedom of its action, 

 either by lessening its nourishment or by de- 

 stroying the contractility of its muscular fibres. 

 Whether the muscular fibres of the heart or its- 

 vessels be disorganized, the valves diseased, 

 or the openings between the cavities enlarged or 

 diminished, or whether the great vessels con- 

 nected with the heart be affected, or the proper 

 proportions between the cavities be wanting, a 

 paroxysm will be excited whenever a greater 

 quantity of blood is transmitted in a given time 

 to the organ than its condition is able to receive or 

 propel. 



CCCXIX, BURNS, in his Treatise on the Dis- 

 eases of the Heart, quotes the opinion of BELL, 

 as apparently explaining the manner in which a 

 child overcomes or shortens a paroxysm of the 

 Casrulean disease, which presents the same ge- 

 neral symptoms as Angina Pectoris, except in 

 certain external signs, which depend on a differ- 

 ence of the organic cause that induces this state 

 of Asphyxia. He says, " the patient lessens the 

 capacity of the chest, if he be very young, by 

 turning on his belly, or if he be older he presses 

 his breast firmly against a table or any solid ob- 



