Physiological Effects of Prolonged Strain.

Progress, 1 October 1907, Page 435

Physiological Effects of Prolonged Strain.

Dr. L. P. Gibson (Cowes). who is an enthusiastic medico-motorist and reader of Progress, sends us the following notes upon Mr. Edge's condition, before and after his record drive on the Brooklands motor racecourse • — Knowing that many readers of Progress are motorists, my subject needs no apology. I wonder if ' a great majority of readers ' is as true as ' a great many readers ' or whether

we must wait a year or so for this state \v come about "> Anyway, to medical motoiv ists, and motorists who are incidentally doctors, a short account of Mr. S. F. Edge's method of preparing for and carrying out his wonderful ride, and some few facts concerning his physical condition, before and after, will be of interest. That Mr. S. F. Edge set out to drive a car sixty miles an hour for twenty-four hours, and that he actually drove it 1581 miles 1310 yards in the time, averaging 65 miles 1594 yards per hour, are matters of history ; and it is not difficult to imagine the strain on man and car involved in this world's record. Mr. Edge is a tet« totaler, non-smoker, and great believer in systematic exercise, and so keeps fitter than most men in an ordinary way, although a very busy man with office hours that would shock many people who think themselves hard-worked. Before the race for some time he took all opportunities of long motor drives about the country, and then one week's absolute rest from business and from any lengthy drives just before the race, to avoid staleness. He took no kind of special training diet, only living very simply, taking plenty of fruit, cocoa, fish, vegetables, a moderate amount of meat, and no tea. During

the race he had fruit (oranges, grapes, strawberries, and bananas), with occasional drinks of cocoa and beef -tea (very little), some chocolate and beef lozenges : he also took one grain extract cocoa, made up with chewinggum, every hour. He ate no so-called solid food at all. During the short stops in the race, the chief cause of discomfort and exhaustion was bruising and backache from a light, not very comfortable seat, fitted to a chassis from which a heavy touring body had been removed, the springs being too curved for comfort at high speed over a track worn in some places. After the race a few peas and bread and a drink of water were taken, and he was in bed and asleep within three hours of the finish, slept well all night, and was eating a good breakfast at nine o'clock next morning. The pulse, temperatuie, and respiration were normal, and he was none the worse for the extraordinary and exhausting strain he had been through.

His temperature before starting was 98 4, pulse 74. of which Fig. 1 is a sphygmographic tracing. At the end of the race his temperature was 100°, and his pulse, of which Fig. 2 is a sphygmographic tracing, 70. I take it that the slowing was due to exhaustion, that the blood pressure was low. due to vagus control, and that the residual blood in the left ventricle was increased in amount. This condition of weak pulse may be accentuated by the fact of the blood being ' soaked up, as it were, by the lungs,' owing to the long continued rapid movement through the air. The expression in inverted commas I borrow from Colonel H. E. Deane's paper on respiratory pulse curves in the Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps (May, 1907). The rapid recovery of Mr. Edge after a night's rest speaks volumes for his methods of training, and there is no doubt that abstinence and exercise, by keeping the blood pressure low, will allow large strains to be undergone without leaving behind any serious effects.