The soldier's heart and the effort syndrome / by Sir Thomas Lewis.

  • Lewis, Thomas, Sir, 1881-1945.
Date:
1940
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The soldier's heart and the effort syndrome / by Sir Thomas Lewis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    2-8 months of full duty. The group gave no better service than did cases of actual heart disease, serving and invalided simultaneously. The average length of training, of stays in hospitals, and of duty rendered (compared to the duration of symptoms). Symptoms. No. of patients. Average training, including some light duty (in months). Average duty before onset (in months). Average duty after onset on foreign service (in months). Average stay in hospital (in months). Light. Pull. ( Onset before , j joining O J 242 6-1 0 2-0 2-8 5-2 a , o Sh a Onset on m 1 training 65 7-0 0 0-7 2-2 5-3 O ) m ■ PI 5 _ - i Onset on active ' service 251 9-0 6-1 0-6 1-5 5-5 Heart disease 101 7-4 — 0-3 4-0 4-4 A second problem is how to reduce the number of cases of “ effort syndrome ” developing under training. To take men in large numbers from sedentary employments, to take young men not yet fully grown, to place these in training camps, to submit them from the first to long route marches and strenuous exercise or drill, is to court a wastage of man-power. In the last war many men broke down in the first few weeks of training. Men unaccustomed to exert themselves, men still of tender years, need a cautious introduction to harder physical conditions of life. The safety of a more gradual system is now recognised ; but there is room for some selection, so that the weaker men may be trained more slowly or under closer medical super¬ vision than the rest. B 2