146 



The Philippine Journal of Science 



1916 



in whom the systolic pressure is 1.6 millimeters lower than 

 normal. 



The personal histories of these cases are negative in regard 

 to illegitimacy and mental disturbance, past or present, with 

 the exception of two who gave histories of epilepsy, three of 

 alcoholic habit in the parents, one of alcoholic habit, and three 

 histories of injury on the head. The Wassermann test was not 

 performed in any one of them, so the syphilitic factor cannot be 

 ruled out. We hesitate to offer any explanation on this strange 

 finding on account of the limited number of cases studied. 



Castellani and Chalmers (17) suggested that tropical heat, to- 

 gether with the effect of the actinic rays of the sun, may result 

 in weakening of the control of the higher centers over the lower 

 and thus induce outbursts of what Plehn called "tropical fury," 

 by which he means fits of passion caused by trivial incidents. 

 According to Castellani and Chalmers this is one of the causes 

 of assault and violent crimes in certain parts of the tropics. 



Table VI. — Blood pressures and pulse rate of homicides. 



[Average age, 30.6 yeai-s.] 



Age. 



Cases. 



Systolic 

 pres- 

 sure. « 



Diastolic 

 pressure. 



Pulse 

 pressure. 



Pulse 

 rate. 



16 to 20 years . 

 21 to SO years 

 31 to 40 years . 

 41 to 60 years . 

 61 to 60 years 



mm. Hg. 

 123.8 

 122.0 

 122.3 

 125.0 

 149.6 



m.m. Hg. 

 87.9 

 89.1 

 85.2 

 87.2 

 99.2 



m,m.Ha. 

 35.9 

 32.9 

 37.1 

 37.8 

 50.4 



99 



99.2 



85.7 



83.2 



90 



Total and average . 



33 



123.5 



8.1 



85.4 



90.2 



• Five cases with systolic pressure above 166 millimeters are excluded. 



BLOOD PRESSURE IN OPIUM AND MORPHINE HABITUES 



Pettey,(20) in his investigation in morphine habitues, uni- 

 formly found high blood pressures on admission. In our series 

 of 915 cases we have 65 cases that are opium and morphine 

 addicts. Their blood pressures were taken between the second 

 and fifth day after they were admitted to the prison. It is very 

 interesting to find that all of them, with the exception of 14 cases 

 who had been taking the drug for periods of from ten to twenty 

 years (Table VII), showed a very much lower systolic pressure 

 than our normal cases of the same age. Our 65 cases with an 

 average age of 40.6 years gave an average of 107.6 millimeters 



