3o 



Anthropological Investigations. 



Lungs and Heart. 



It will be well to add in this place the results of the examination 

 of the thoracic organs in the children. 



It was rather a surprise to me not to find among the whole 1,000 

 children more than one case in which it could be positively said that 

 there existed a consolidation in some parts of the lungs. This case 

 was that of a small negro boy, who has since left the asylum ; he had 

 a consolidation of both apices. There were perhaps a dozen addi- 

 tional cases in which percussion sounds over the apices were not 

 as clear as they ought to be, but there were no rales audible, nor 

 were there present any other signs of a lung trouble in these indi- 

 viduals. 



Notwithstanding the encouraging results of the examination of 

 the lungs of the inmates of the asylum, it is undoubtedly a fact that 

 a certain percentage of these children carry a predisposition to con- 

 sumption, and require additional care. 



The heart was found to be entirely normal in 955 cases out of the 

 1,000 children examined. In 10 other cases the disturbance of the 

 organ was light and might have been but temporary. In the re- 

 maining- cases the disorders found were as follows: 



Heart action abnormally rapid 



Heart very slow (strong) 



Heart very feeble 



Heart action persistently irregular 



Systolic murmur 



liecided mitrel insufficiency 



Cardiac hypertrophy 



White. 



Male. Female. 



Colored. 



Male. Female. 



The colored children, as the preceding figures show, are much 

 more free from cardiac disorders than are the white children. 



The disorders observed are undoubtedly, in the majority of the 

 cases, due to such conditions as general anaemia or neurasthenia, 

 and will disappear with the cure of the latter. 



Of the few organic disorders of the heart, no one was of a congeni- 

 tal origin. ! 



