"SOLDIER'S HEART."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11732, 23 June 1916, Page 1

"SOLDIER'S HEART."

! PROBLEM FOR DOCTORS, THE EXERCISE CURE. Numbers of soldiers have since the begiuning of the war been invalided home on' account of a condition which has come to be known as "soldiers heart," writes a correspondent of .the London '-'Times." The condition for all its puzzling character is well marked and has a Jong history. It was a serious scourge during the American Civil war, and indeed aroused so much attention then that a special hospial was opened in Philalelphia for the study of it. The condition showed itself in the present war, ana it became clear that some steps must be taken to cope with it, and so the War Office, called-the. Medical Research Committee of the National Insurance Act to assist it in opening an investigation. Tho work was entrusted to Sir James Mackenzie, whoso great knowledge ot all matters affecting the heart marked him as the right man. After a period Sir James Mackenzie gave expression to the views h'i had formed. "Soldier's heart" was not heart disease as that term is commonly understood. It belongs to a different group of maladies, and in its treatment fresh air, exorcise, recreation, and cheerfulness must play an important part. Sir James pointed ont that officers often improved vcy much when sent away to fish or shoot, and asked, pertinently, why the soldier should not have his "skittle alley." These views were submitted to Sir William Osier and Sir Clifford Allbutt, who supported them., Sir Alfred Keogh, who had initiated the investigation in the first instance, then decided to open a special hospital of a very special kind and to gr ipple once again with this puzzle, which had defied solution during forty years. Recognising the value of the bright and bracing situation, he chose the military hospital at Hampstead. The choice "was a happy one, • and equally happy was the choice of a staff to undertake the work. There are no "square pegs in round holes" at the heart hospital at Hampstead. How carefully that staff was selected may be learned bv a glance at the list of the nmes—Sir Clifford Allbutt, Sir William Osier, and Sir James Mackenzie, Dr Thomas Lewis, Major Meakins, and Captain Parkinson. Nor was any stint made in regard to the supply of means. One room in the hospital was set apart as a bacteriological laboratorv, and is being fitted up in the most efficient manner. Another room has beer devoted to the electric cardiograph, another to tho orthodiagraph, another to the X-rays. The electro cardiograph, for example, is a piece of apparatus whereby photogrrihs of the electric waves set up bv a beating heat can be obtained. The patient tv T sit in one room and be connected bv wires with the instrument situated in another. The record is exact as science understands the word. The orthodiagraph, which was presented to ■the inTsuital bv the British Red Cross Society'and the Order of St ; John, is an instrument by which the size of the heart is recorded.