The senile heart : its symptoms, sequelae, and treatment / by George Wm. Balfour.

  • Balfour, George William, 1823-1903.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The senile heart : its symptoms, sequelae, and treatment / by George Wm. Balfour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    indeed, to indicate that the organism is dying, but is no explanation of why it dies. Failure in the genesis of force is only an indication of failure in oxidation or assimilation. So, too, impoverishment of the blood, which has been regarded as the cause of the gradual failure in the aged,^ is itself due to imperfect Causes of fail- assimilation, and leads to imperfect ure in the gen- • i ,. t j /• -i esis of force, oxidation and consequent lailure m the genesis of force. Imperfect assim- ilation is, doubtless, one of the most important links in the chain of causes which lead to the general decay of the bodily frame. The difficulty is to say where this chain begins ; for all the func- tions of the body are so linked together that there is not one of them which can be called primary, upon which, when it fails, may be laid the blame of initiating the decay of all the others.^ The more, indeed, we investigate the phenomena of decay, the more clearly do we see that this does not arise from any failure of the sources of potential energy, but solely from the inability longer, term of existence.'-—Koget, article Age,'' in the Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine, etc. ^ Vide articles on Age, in the Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology, by Symonds, p. 82; and in the Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine, by Roget, p. 39. 2 Roget, loc, cit.; and Whytt, On Vital Motions, Edinburgh, 1751, p. 270.