Encyclopedia of Diet: A Treatise on the Food Question, Vol. 2Christian, Eugene
Science
Encyclopedia of Diet: A Treatise on the Food Question, Vol. 2
Christian, Eugene
Diet; Diet in disease; Food
The heart may well be called the thermometer of the body. Under
normal conditions it is never heard from, but under abnormal
conditions it is the first and the most reliable sentinel of the
body. It stands eternally on duty and sends its danger signals
to the brain with truthful accuracy, whether the trouble be of
physical, mental, or emotional origin. A word or a sound sent
through the air enters the ear and is analyzed by the brain, but the
heart registers accurately its effect upon the physical body. We see
a face or an occurrence a block away, and through the optic nerves
it is comprehended by the brain, but the heart alone registers or
gives back to the brain the effect upon the body.
[Sidenote: Necessity for heeding the symptoms of the heart]
This little engine, but little bigger than one's fist, pumps about
twenty tons of blood every day above its own level in every body
of average size, besides sending the life fluids of the blood-serum
with lightning speed to the parts of the remotest anatomy, carting
away the effete and poisonous matter to the lungs to be burned with
oxygen, and carrying new building material from cell to cell for
repairs. Should we not, therefore, take good care of, and heed the
warnings of so wonderful a piece of automatic mechanism? Should
we not study all its symptoms told in a language sympathetic and
truthful, and as unerring as the laws that govern the movement of
worlds in space?
[Sidenote: Some undefined technical terms]
The heart gives off various symptoms indicating the different
kinds of sins we commit against the natural laws of our organisms.
Medical men have named some of these symptoms as follows: Dilation,
hypertrophy, atrophy, aneurism, inflammation, valvular derangement,
etc., but in none of their reference works are the causes of these
so-called dis-eases clearly defined. Fatty degeneration is the only
one that is explained, the term meaning that the heart has been
deprived of room in which to do its work, owing to surrounding fatty
accumulations.
HEART TROUBLE--THE CAUSE
The blood enters the heart through the superior venae cavae flowing
to the right lobe or auricle, then it is pumped by the heart beats
to the right ventricle. From here it is forced through the pulmonary
artery to the lungs where it is purified and charged with the oxygen
we breathe. From the lungs the blood returns through the pulmonary
veins to the left auricle of the heart, and then to the left
ventricle. Having passed once through the purifying plant and twice
through the distributing station, it is now sent out through the
large systematic artery and distributed to every capillary cell of
the body.
[Sidenote: Heart trouble caused by (carbon dioxid) gas]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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