What "Soldiers' Heart" Is.

Otago Witness, Issue 2274, 30 September 1897, Page 52

What "Soldiers' Heart" Is.

So important & matter is that of the way ia which certain military accoutrements &t, thafe the highest medical authorities are constantly being called into council in regard thereto, and doctors recogaise as a special form of heartdisease that which is knownaa "soldiers' heart," and which has been produced by the nwn in past days having hid to undergo great exertion whilst the old-fashioned cross-belt pressed on the region of the heart:

Within the last few years one of the greatest problems to be solved in regard to accoutrements has baea this very matter, and to show how imporfc&nb it is, the writer has two separate cuttings, from London paperß of the last 12 months, both dealing with inquests on old Indian Mutiny and Crimean men wTitrdied from "soldiers' heart," caused by the pressure oP the breast-straps, as evidencad severally by the doctors.

Sk Hugh Rose, who made the cfclebrated forced march ia the Indian Mutiny with which his name will ever be associated, said that the straps GVer the chests of his troops were responsible for more men falling out than all the other causes together ; and on one occasion during the march he said fco his orderly : " The murderous heart-strap will be felt by many a hundred men years after they have cist it off." Such requests as those adverted to show how prophetic his words were.