MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10407, 3 April 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

HEART DISEASE. The heart being the great centra! organ of the circulation of the blood, all other important organic diseases affect it; and all seriou3 heart diseases react upon the other great bodily organs—the lungs, liver, etc. For example, if the kidneys are both affected by intemperance, they become more solid and hardened, and more fibrous. The result of thesa changes is that the circulation through them is hindered, and the heard is required to beat more strongly to drive the blood through them; hence kidney disease leads to enlargement of the heart. This enlargement takes place in the muscular structure. The walls of the heart become thicker and more powerful; but the* valves of the heart are of a more gristly structure, and they do not grow in the same way as the muscle does, and so there become a disproportion between them, and so valvular diseases may arise. But if, in this supposed case of kidney disease, there is also fatty degeneration, the heart, instead of growing in strength, may, under the great strain, dilate and its walls become larger indeed, but thinner and fatty ; then that is the state of system in which so many deaths occur from sudden fainting in intemperate person. Aa old ai:a creeps on us there is a great tendency to chalky deposits in the heart, and in the coats of the blood vessels. This change diminishes their elasticity, and converts them into more or less rigid, hard tubes, which also tend to obstruct the blood flow. Such vessels are very liable to crack under excitement of the circulation ; they cannot stand a sudden strain. The most delicate blood vessels are found in the brain, and when one of these is affected by this chalky change in its coat, and so snaps, then we get the state called cerebral hemorrhage, which produces the insensibility end paralysis of the limbs commonly called apoplexy. THE PREVALENCE OF SLEEPLESSNESS. Ib i 9 probable that most medical men, whose work lies largely among those who toil with their brains, have noticed the un-

usual prevalence of sleeplessness during the present winter, and more especially amongst men. Patient after patient repeats the same story. He goes to bed at his usual hour, falls off to sleep very much as usual; but, instead of sleeping through the whole niphb until six or seven in the morning, he wakes about three or even earlier, and, do what). he will, he can get "no sound aleep after thab time.' . He may lie more or less still, and may even " doze off" occasionally; but if he does he dreams, or is more than half conscious, and in the morning when it it time to rise he feels not only unrefreshed, bat as if he would give all bis day'a profits for one single hour of sound refreshing sleep. But that may not be. Now, there are three things to be said on this point—first, something aa to the cause; secondly, as to the treatment to be avoided; and, thirdly, ai to the treatment which will probably cure. The cause is, no i doubt, the absence of clear, bright, frosty weather, and the prevalence of a damp, relaxing atmosphere of relatively high temperature for the season. Under the circumetance!, what is to be done? One thing must certainly not be done: soporifics must not be resorted to. The right thing to do is, if possible, to diminish, or altogether atop, excessive brain activity. The moat effectual step towards this end is to run away to the seaside for a few days or a week, and to a cold, bracing place. To take remedies may answer the purpose for a short time; but such a course cannot but be attended with after injury under the peculiar physiological conditions. A few days of brain-rest and brain-bracing at the seaside will, with certainty, effect a " natural" cure in most cases, and the effect) upon the whole system will be as lasting as It will to beneficial.—Hospital.