'Smoker's Heart.'

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 378, 19 June 1889, Page 4

'Smoker's Heart.'

If, as alleged, it was too much smoking which upset Mr Edwin Booth at Rochester, it is far from being the first case of the kind in our history. Within the past twenty year 3 the medical faculty has come to clearly comprehend and to accurately diagnose a disease which they now denominate as • smoker's heart.' Excessive smoking, whether by pipe, cigar or cigarette, affects the action of the heart and disturbs the circulation. The pulse will intermit — notwith any regularity — sometimes one beat in four, sometimes one in ten, sometimes two or three at a time, and then comes trouble. The brain, missing its regular pulsations of blood, wavers, the heart flutters, and then follows a temporary collapse. Strong cordials are ' indicated.' Strong coffee is good— strong spirits better. But the remedy, too often relied upon, is as bad as the disease ; and the subject grows slowly worse. Angina pectoris is said to sometimes result. One of the leading physicians of this city relates a case in point. A patient suffering from ' smoker's heart ' believed that he had chronic heart disease, and came for a careful examination early in the day — before he had eaten any breakfast. The stethoscope showed the heart to be sound as a dot — he had not smoked for twelve hours. Greatly relieved at the verdict, he lighted a big black cigar, and sat smoking, upon an empty stomach, while he talked. In a few minutes, as he rose to go, his feet faile6s him and he fell in a momentary faint. The heart was fluttering wildly, but yielded atl once and resumed its normal action after a strong stimulant. The moral of the story is, that if you smoke at all, you should smoke in moderation and on a well-filled stomach. Ib is recklessness that hurts. — ' Cincinnati Enquirer.'