HEART TROUBLE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXV, Issue 11648, 23 April 1913, Page 4

HEART TROUBLE.

An important hew * "department has been inaugurated at the London Hospiunder the direction of Dr James Mackenzie,. This is the * 'heart department," which is being , 'generously subsidised by the Board of Education. The experience of Dr Mackenzie and otherpractitioners attached to the London Hospital has shown that the most serious ailment among the people of the Near East of London is not, as might

jbe supposed, phthisis, but rheumatism, which attacks the young people early on account of tlifcir weakened condition and unhealthy modo of living. With rheumatism comes the rheumatic heart, and the younger the East Ender has an attack of rheumatic fever the-more likely is his heart to be affected. Thus there are thousands of "heart patients, '' who form! what is practically an army of "unemployables. " The hew department of the great hospital will attack this grave social problem, and will investigate-and study the many unsolved problems connected with diseases of the heart. Amongst the appliances which aid the work of investig-, ation, one of the most interesting is the electro-cardiograph.. At frequent intervals during'; the. day each patient iv tho new ward places each hand in" a dish of salt water, electrically connected with Dr Mackenzie's laboratory. Every time the heart beats it produces an electric current, and in the labora*ttory delicate instruments iv graphic form, the duration and -inteiir sity of the pulsations. By this means it is believed that much greater certainty in diagnosis can be obtained than was ever previously the case.