Jtptunimus GDL Hadiharton 6743 2 Babii

L E C T U R E S ON
A N G I N A PECTORIS
A N D ALLIED S T A T E S
BY
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL C 'OF PHYSICIANS, LONDON

PROFESSOR OF MtDICINE, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, BALTIMORE
AUTHOR OF A PRACTICE OF MEDICINE
LECTURES ON THE DIAGNOSIS OF ABDOMINAL T U L O R S , ETC.
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
I897
COF'YRIQHT, 1896, 1897,
B Y D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
TO
W. T. GAIRDNER, M.D., F.R.S.,

REOIUS PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ULASGOW.
Dear Dr. Gairdner :

Please accept the dedication of this little volume
i n token of the appreciation which your cis-atlantic
brethren f e e l of the value of your life and work i n
our profession.
Sincerely yours,
WILLIAMOSLER.
NOTE.
THESElectures were delivered to the graduate class in

medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and appeared in
Tile New York Medical Jourwal, 1896, vol. lxiv. They are
herc republished with slight additions and corrections.
CONTENTS.
LECTURE I. PAGE
History of the recognition of angina,-Heberden, Rougnon, Norgagni.

-Literature.-Definition.-Forms of heart pain.-Classification
of the forms of angina.-Physiology and pathology of the coi-o-
nary arteries . . . . . . . . . . . 1
LECTURE 11.
ANGINA PECTORIS VERA, ACTIOLOGP. QENERAL DESCRIPTION OF
TEE DISEASE.
Incidence of the disease.-Station in life.-Sex.-Age.-Epidemic in-

fluences.- Heredity. -Gout. -Diabetes. -Syphilis. - Specificfe-
vers.-Heart disease.-Locomotor ataxia.-General picture of the
disease . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
LECTURE 111.
ANGINA PECTORIS VERA. PHENOMENA OF THE ATTACK.
Exciting causes.-Symptoms.-State of heart and pulse.-Pericarditis,

-Respiratory features.-Gastro - intestinal symptoms.-Nervous
and psychicalsymptoms . . . . . . . . . 45
LECTURE 1V.
ALLIED AND ASSOCIATED CONDITIONS.
I. Syncope anginosa.-11. Thc Adams-Stokes syndrome,-111. Angins

sine dolore.-IV. Cardiac asthma . . . . . . . 67
LECTURE V.
PSEUDO-ANGINA PECTORIS.
I. Neurotic group : (a) Hysterical and neurasthenic cases ; (b) Angins

pectoria vaso-motoria ; (e) Reflex angina,-11. Toxic angina : forms
of heart pain from tobacco . . . . . . . . 86
vi CONTENTS,
LECTURE VI.
THEORIES OF ANGINA,
PAOE
The importance of coronary artery disease.-Intermittent claudication.
-State of the heart muscle in an attack-Seat and cause of the
pain.-Vaso-motor changes in angina.-Relations of spurious and
trueangina . . . . . . . . . . 111
LECTURE VII.
DIAGNOSIS, PROGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT OF ANQINA.
Anomalous cases of heart pain.-Elements in the diagnosis of true

angina.-Differentiation of true and pseudo angina.-Prognosis.
-Treatment of angina pectoris vera.-Treatment of false angina.
-Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . 131
APPENDIX.
NOTE8.-Rougnon's claim. , , . . . . , , 157
" B.-The case of Mr. Matthew Arnold . . . . .
, 158
C.-Retention of consciousness after apparent cessation of
"
heart's action . . . . . . . . . 160
But uiel I woot thou doost my herte to erme
That I almost have caught a cardiaele.
The wordes of the Host to the Phisicien
and the PardOller.-cFIAl!CER.
LECTURES ON ANGINA PECTORIS
AND ALLIED STATES.
LECTURE I.
History of the recognition of angina.-Heberden, Rougnon, Morgagni.-Lit-
erature.-Dehition.-Forms of heart pain.-Classification of the forms
of angina-Physiolon and pathology of the coronary arteries.
THEhistory of the recognition of the disorder known as an-

gina pectoris is connected with the names of three celebrated
men-Heberden, Jenner, and J o h n Hunter.
On July 21,1768, Heberden read, at the Royal College of
Physicians, a paper entitled Some Account of a Disorder of the
Breast, which was published in vol. ii of the Bedical Trans-
actions of the College of Physicians, 1772. A n extract from
the original description must be quoted: "There is a dis-
order of the breast, marked with strong and peculiar symp-
toms, considerable for the kind of danger belonging to
it. ... The seat of it and sense of strangling and anxiety
with which it is attended may make it not improperly be
called angina pectoris.
" Those who are afflicted with it are seized while they are
walking, and more particularly when they walk soon after eat-
ing, with a painful and most disagreeable sensation in the
breast, which seems as if it would take their life away if it were
t o increase or to continue; the moment they stand still all this
uneasiness vanishes. I n all other respects the patients are at
the beginning of this disorder perfectly well, and, in particu-
1
2 ANGINA PECTORIS AND ALLIED STATES.
lar, have no shortness of breath, from which it is totally dif-

ferent."
Subsequently, in the celebrated Commentaries upon which
our grandfathers in the profession were educated, Heberden
gave a fuller account of his experience with the disease. The
name which he adopted can not be regarded as altogether sat-
isfactory, since it was already in use in designating affections
of the throat, with which its literal meaning-a strangling-
is much more in harmony. I n one sense, however, the term is
fairly appropriate, since, as noted by Gairdner, the words anx-
iety and anguish, expressive of two of the most prominent fea-
tures of the disease, have a derivation from the same Greek
word as angina.
I n 1773, John Hunter had his first attack, which was
graphically described by his nephew, Everard Home : " While
he was walking about the room he cast his eyes on the looking-
glass, and observed his countenance to be pale, his lips white,
giving the appearance of a dead man. This alarmed him and
led him to feel for his pulse, but he found none in either arm;
the pain continued, and he found himself at times not breath-
ing. Being afraid of death soon taking place if he did not
breathe, he produced the voluntary act of breathing by work-
ing his lungs by the power of the will.,, I n 1776 he had a
second attack, and when convalescent he visited Bath. Here
he was seen by his friend and pupil, Edward Jenner, of Berke-
ley; and one of the most interesting and sagacious letters
of that distinguished man was written to Heberden, giving
his diagnosis of John Hunter's case, and suggesting, for the
first time, the probable association of disease of the coronary
arteries with angina pectoris. The letter is worth quoting
i n full: * " When you are acquainted with my motives, I
Baron's L i f e of Jenner, London, 1827.

HISTORY O F T H E RECOGNITION O F ANGINA. 3
presume you will pardon the liberty I take in addressing you.
I am prompted to it from a knowledge of the mutual regard
that subsists between you and my worthy friend Mr. Hunter.
When I had the pleasure of seeing him at Bath last autumn
I thought he was affected with many symptoms of the angina
pectoris. The dissections (as far as I have seen) of those
who have died of it throw but little light upon the subject.
Though, i n the course of my practice, I have seen many fall
victims to this dreadful disease, yet I have only had two op-
portunities of an examination after death. I n the first of
these I found no material disease of the heart, except that the
coronary artery appeared thickened.
" As no notice had been taken of such a circumstance by
anybody who had written on the subject, I concluded that we

must still seek for other causes as productive of the disease;
but, about three weeks ago, Mr. Paytherus, a surgeon at Ross,
in Herefordshire, desired me to examine with him the heart
of a person who had died of the angina pectoris a few days
before. Here we found the same appearance of the coronary
arteries as in the former case. But what I had taken to be
an ossification of the vessel itself, Mr. P. discovered to be a
kind of firm, fleshy tube, formed within the vessel, with a
considerable quantity of ossific matter dispersed irregularly
through it. This tube did not appear to have any vascular
connection with the coats of the artery, but seemed to lie
merely in simple contact with it.
'' As the heart, I believe, in every subject that has died of
the angina pectoris, has been found extremely loaded with
fat, and as these vessels lie quite concealed in that substance,
is it possible this appearance may have been overlooked? The
importance of the coronaries, and how much the heart must
suffer from their not being able duly to perform their func-
tions (we can not be surprised at the painful spasms), is a
subject I need not enlarge upon, therefore shall just remark

that it is possible that all the symptoms may arise from this
one circumstance.
'' As I frequently write to Mr. H. I have been some time
in hesitation respecting the propriety of communicating the
matter to him, and should be exceedingly thankful to you,
sir, for your advice upon the subject. Should it be admitted
that this is the cause of the disease, I fear the medical world
may seek in vain for a remedy, and I am fearful (if Mr.
Hunter should admit this to be the cause of the disease) that
it may deprive him of the hopes of a recovery."
I n another letter * Jenner gives as his reasons for not pub-
lishing his views earlier an anxiety lest they should be a source
of annoyance to his friend Hunter. " Soon after Mr. Paythe-
rus met with a case. Previous to our examination of the body
I offered him a wager that we should find the coronary arteries
ossified. This, however, proved not to be exactly true; but
the coats of the arteries were hard. ...At this time my
valued friend, Mr. John Hunter, began to have the symptoms
of angina pectoris too strongly marked upon him; and this
circumstance prevented any publication of my ideas on the
subject, as it must have brought on an unpleasant conference
between Mr. Ilunter and me." H e says that Mr. Cline and
Xr. Home did not think much of his views. " When, how-
ever, Mr. Eunter died, Mr. Home very candidly wrote to me,
immediately after the dissection, to tell me I was right."
The further details of IIunter's remarkable case are always
referred to. From 1785, when he had a severe illness, the at-
tacks became increasingly frequent, and were brought on par-
ticularly by exercise and by worry and anger; and, indeed, he
was accustomed to say " that his life was in the hands of any
* Parry. An. Inquiry i n l o the S p p t o m s and Causes of IheSyncope

Anginosa, commonly eatled Angina Pectoris, 1799.
HISTORY O F THE RECOGNITION OB’ ANGINA. 5
rascal who chose to annoy and tease him.” During the last
few years of his life, though he did a large amount of work,
the attacks seem to have been very frequent, and mould come
on after very slight exertion and while he was operating. As
he had himself predicted, death came suddenly, in conse-
quence of a fit of temper at a meeting of the governors of St.
George’s I’Iospital, October 16, 1793. When contradicted
flatly, he left the board room i n silent rage, and in the next
room gave a deep groan and fell down dead. The coronary
arteries were found to be converted into open bony tubes, and
the aorta was dilated.
Attempts have been made by French writers to claim the
priority in the description of the disease for Rougnon, pro-
fessor of medicine in the University of Besangon. I n a letter
addressed to M. Lorry, dated February 23,1768,* he describes
the case and circumstances of the death of a Captain Charles.
The patient had become asthmatic, and on walking fast had a
sort of suffocation. Six weeks before his death he had com-
plained to M. Rougnon of “ une gbne singuliBre sur toute le
partie antirieure de la poitrine en f o r m e de plastron.” The
attacks evidcntly occurred with great suddenness, and disap-
peared with equal abruptness. The chief stress is laid upon
the feeling of suffocation, but it is evident that associated with
it there was pain of great intensity; “ seulement une doubur
gravative dans Za rigion d u c a w , Zorspu’il &rouvoit ses suf-
focations.” Captain Charles died very suddenly, shortly after
dining with his friends. The pericardium was fatty; the
heart was large; there were no valvular defects; the coronary
veins were enlarged “ prodigiously ” ; no mention was made
of the condition of the coronary arteries. Rougnon lays stress
upon the obstruction in the lungs and excessive ossification of
* Lettre d M. Lorry sur une rnaladie nouvelle. Besangon, 1768.

the cartilages. H e confesses, however, that the condition was

very puzzling, and the autopsy not at all satisfactory to his
friends : L6 N. Charles est mort, disoient-ils, parce pu’il est
mwt.”
I can not agree with Professor Gairdner, who says that
“ there was no trace of anything like a clinical description of
angina pectoris in M. Rougnon’s letter.” * The suddenness

of the attacks, the pain in the region of the heart, the abrupt
termination, and the mode of death-during exertion after a
full meal-favor the view that the case was one of true an-
gina. (Note A)
To Morgagni, not Rougnon, is due the credit of the first
description of a single case. I n the splendid section on aneu-
rysm of the aorta, he describes angina pectoris accurately i n
Case V, referring to the paroxysms, the pain, the difficulty of
breathing, the numbness of the left arm, and the effect of exer-
tion. I read you here extracts from the case.
“ A lady, forty-two years of age, who for a long time had

been a valetudinarian, and within the same period, on using
pretty quick exercise of body, she was subject to attacks of vio-
lent anguish in the upper part of the chest on the left side, ac-
companied with a difficulty of breathing and numbness of the
left arm; but these paroxysms soon subsided when she ceased
from exertion. In these circumstances, but with cheerfulness
of mind, she undertook a journey from Venice, purposing to
travel along the continent, when she was seized with a parox-
ysm, and died on the spot. I examined the body on the follow-
.
ing day. . . The aorta was considerably dilated at its curva-
ture; and, in places through its whole tract, the inner surface
was unequal and ossified. These appearances were propagated
into the arteria innominata. The aortic valves were indurated.”
He remarks: “ The delay of blood in the aorta, in the heart,
in the pulmonary vessels, and in the vena cava, would occasion
~
* Lancet, 1891, i, p. 604.

HISTORY O F T H E RECOGNITION O F ANGINA. 7
the symptoms of which the woman complained during life;
namely, the violent uneasiness, the difficulty of breathing, and
the numbness of the arm.”-(Cooke’s Morgagni.)
There are those, indeed, who regard Seneca as the first to
describe the affection, in the remarkable account which he
gives of his own disorder. With this view Forbes and Gaird-
ner agree, but Parry and Stokes do not. I quote from Parry
the following translation of part of Seneca’s graphic account:
‘I The attack is very short and like a storm. It usually ends
within an hour. I have undergone all bodily infirmities and
dangers; but none appears to me more grievous. Why not?
Because t o have any other malady is only to be sick; to have
this is t o be dying.” Seneca states, too, that his physicians
called the disease a meditatio mortis.
The literature of angina pectoris has become very volumi-
nous. English writers have contributed most largely to the
clinical description of the disease. Perhaps the two most
valuable articles are lectures xxxvii and xxxviii in Latham’s
Clinical Medicine,which you will find in vol. i of the New
Sydenham Society edition of his works; and Professor Gaird-
ner’s essay in Reynolds’ System of Medicine. The best recent
expositions in French and German are to be found in Hu-
chard’s Trait6 c l i n i p u e des maladies du cceur, second edition,
1893, which gives a most exhaustive account of the various
forms of angina, and 0. Rosenbach’s Die Krmkheiten &es
Herzens, 1896. I pass about for pour inspection a number of
the monographs and journal articles which I have collected
on the subject. Parry’s essay has become very scarce, but it
is in all the larger medical libraries. Rougnon’s Lettre, pnb-
lished at BesanCon, 1768, is still more rare. The copy in the
Surgeon-General’s Library is the only one I have ever seen.
I wouId ask you to look at the first part at least of these fly
leaves, which I picked up in an old book shop a few years ago.
It is a letter to Dr. Heberden from a man who signs himself

“ Unknown,” descriptive of his own case. H e had seen, in
the Critical Beview, an extract from IIeberden’s original
paper, and, recognizing his malady, he wrote in this letter one
of the very best accounts which exists in the literature. It is
particularly noticeable for two things: I I e clearly dissociated
the pain of the attack from the angor or mental feature, and
he first niade use of the now hackneyed phrase describing the
latter aspect as “ an universal pause within me of the opera-
tions of Nature.” Expecting a sudden death, he left orders
that Heberden should examine his body. Within three weeks
from the writing of the letter the dissection was made by John
I-Iunter.
DEFIXITION.-h the consideration of a disease it is well,
if possible, to start with a clear understanding, or at least some
concise statement, of its nature, and of the characters of the
manifestations by wliicli it is rccognized. With some disorders
this is a very easy matter. For example, insufficiency of the
aortic valves is a clearly defined affection, with, it is true, B
diverse aetiology, a varied anatomical picture (from a trifling
curl of the edges of a valve, to a clean shaving of a segment
from the aortic ring); but with all its variations there are asso-
ciated definite sequences and well-characterized signs.
Angina pectoris is not a disease, but a syndrome or symp-

tom group (without constant zetiological or anatomical founda-
tions) associated with complex conditions, crganic or func-
tional, of the heart and aorta. Pain about the heart of an
agonizing character, occurring in paroxysms, is the dominant
feature of all varieties of the syndrome. Used to define
paroxysmal attacks of pain in the chest-breast-pang-we em-
ploy the term generically, qualifying the varieties by such
names as true, false, hysterical, and voso-motor.
HEART PAIN. 9
Before passing to the discussion of the varieties of angina
pectoris let me refer briefly to the subject of
HEART Pam.-Disturbmce of sensation is a most incon-
stant symptom of heart disease; the gravest affections are
often painless; the most trifling may present the features of
an intense neuralgia; while a very limited lesion may have
as its sole manifestation paroxysms of agonizing pain.
The following abnormal casdiac sensations may be recog-
nized :
1. Consciousness of the heart’s action; a fluttering, a sense
of goneness, the indefinable uneasiness associated with palpita-
tion, a sense of tension in the chest with gasping, all or some
of which are common phenomena in emotional states, in indi-
gestion, neurasthenia, and hysteria.
2. Pain-darting, stabbing, tearing or boring, dull and
heavy, or acute and piercing, steady or paroxysmal-varying
in grades of intensity and in duration, often transient and
trifling, as in dyspepsia and the tobacco habit, more enduring
and severe in hysteria and neurasthenia, and occurring in
paroxysms of an agonizing, intolerable character in the forms
of angina. It often radiates over the area of distribution of
certain of the cervical and dorsal nerves.
3. There is a n element peculiar to certain conditions of the
heart, often associated with, but which can not itself be prop-
erly characterized as pain-indeed, the patient often expressly
states that it is not of the nature of physical pain-a sense of
imminent dissolution, a mental anguish, which has been vari-
ously expressed by patients and writers as a pause in the opera-
tions of Nature, the very hand of death, angor acnimi, etc.
This it is which constitutes the special feature in a majority
of the cases of true angina.
CLASSIFICATION 0%”THE F O R M S O F ANGINA
FECTORIS.-Tt
may seem a refinement to subdivide and sort cases of a disorder
2
which is acknowledged to be only a symptom, or, as it has been

expressed, a neurosal incident of cardio-vascular disease; but
there are practical advantages which far outweigh any theo-
retical objections-advantages of the very greatest moment i n
prognosis and in treatment.
Following the work of EIeberden, Parry, and others, there
were cases reported as angina which did not belong properly
to that category, and the disorder was confounded with cardiac
asthma, which we now term cardiac dyspnea. As early as
1812 J. Latham read a paper on certain symptoms usually but
not always denoting angina pectoris (JfedicaZ Tmcnsactions,
Royal College of Physicians). IIe remarks that when the ex-
tremities are cold, tlie countenance is bluish or purplish, the
pulse is rapid, and respiration is performed with difficulty and
i n an upright position of the body, the practitioner has usually
concluded that the disease is angina pectoris. The class of
cases which he described were evidently orthopncea and car-
diac dyspnea, associated chiefly with affections of the abdo-
men. H e calls the state angina notha, spurious angina, the
first time, so far as I am aware, that the term was used in
literature.
Laennec recognized different degrees of intensity in an-
gina, stating that it was “ f a r from possessing the degree of
severity attributed to it by many authors,” and was evidently
aware that it occurred commonly enough without indicating
any serious disease of the heart or large vessels. “Angina
pectoris, in a slight or middling degree, is extremely common,
and exists very freqnently in persons who have no organic
affection of the heart or large vessels.” *
By far the most important contribution to the recognition
of varieties of angina pectoris was made by Walshe, who, i n
* Forbes’s edition of Laennec, fourth edition, p. 650.

FORMS O F ANGINA PECTORIS. 11
his text-book on Diseases of the Ihart, described a pseudo-
angina pectoris, occurring particularly in women, and in the
subjects of hysteria, spinal irritation, and various forms of
neuralgia.
The recognition by Beau, Graves, Stokes, and others of the
relation between the abuse of tobacco and attacks of angina led
to the separation of the important group of toxic cases. Other
forms of pseudo-angina which are described are those depend-
ent upon reflex causes, and the vaso-motor type of Mothnagel.
I n any long series, the cases of angina fall into two groups:
those in which there are signs of lesion of the heart or arteries,
or of both, and those in which all symptoms of organic disease
are absent. This was the important division recognized by
Forbes into organic and functional angina-the angina pec-
toris vera and the angina pectoris notha-the true and the
pseudo-angina.
I n looking over the cases which form the basis of these lec-
tures, I find that they fall into the following groups: (1)An-
gina pectoris vera, and (2) angina pectoris notha, under which
are grouped hysterical, vasomotor, and toxic forms.
THECORONARY ARTERIES.-A few essential points in the
anatomy and physiology of the heart may here engage our at-
tention for a few minutes. The coronary arteries are the
Abana and Pharpar of the vascular rivers, “ lucid streams,”
which water’the very citadel of life. B y means of these in-
jected specimens, which I pass around, you may refresh your
memories on their distribution. The arteries are, as you see,
large in proportion to the size of the organ to be nourished.
From the position of their origin it is evident that they must
be subject to blood pressure during both systole and diastole.
The left coronary is usnally the larger, and divides into two
main branches: the circumflex or posterior, which rims in the
groove between the left ventricle and auricle, and the anterior
or descending ramus. Note particularly the branches of the

latter vessel, which runs in the anterior interventricular
groove. You will see a very large branch, which is given off
to the anterior wall of the left ventricle, and several branches
which pass deeply into the septum. This anterior branch is
the important one in the morbid anatomy of the coronary
arteries, since it is by far the most frequently found the seat
of extensive sclerosis or of embolism or thrombosis. It may
be called the artery o f sudden death.
From the date of Sir John Eric Erichsen’s observations on
the subject (1542) to the present the effects of closure of the
coronary asteries have been much discussed. A very good his-
torical summary is given by W. T. Porter in the Journal of
Physiology, vol xv) 1893. I t is remarkable how discordant are
the statements of different observers. As this author remarks,
seldom have the results of physiological studies been more at
variance; there is no statement which is not denied, no fact
which is not disputed. Idore recently Porter has again gone
over the whole question with a great deal of skill, and I will
give you here some of his conclusions.*
The frequency of the stoppage of the heart’s action is in
proportion to the size of the artery tied. Ligation of the small-
est artery, the arteria septi, does not cause arrest; of the next
in size, the coronaria dextra, fourteen per cent. o f the ligations
were followed by arrest; then comes the larger descendens
with twenty-eight per cent. ; and, finally, the circumflex, the
largest artery of all, with sixty-four per cent.
The effect of closure of the coronary arteries on the blood
pressure within the heart is of great importance. After the
tying of a single vessel there is a diastolic rise of pressure,
which is not compensated for by any increase o f pressure in
* Journal of Experimental Mediche, vol. i, No. 1, 1896.

THE CORONARY ARTERIES. 13
the coronary arteries; on the contrary, in them the pressure
is falling, while that in the auricles is rising. It is known that
the normal mean pressure in the auricles, and consequently
in the coronary veins near their mouths, is very low. A rise
of a few millimetres of auricular pressure might interrupt the
entire coronary circulation. This is one of the most impor-
tant points brought out by Porter’s researches, and I quote
here a paragraph on this point: “ It must be acknowledged,
then, that a rising auricular pressure after ligation may at
length put a stop to the whole blood supply of the cardiac mus-
cle, and, as this rise is often occasioned by the closure of a
single vessel, it is plain that the entire coronary circulation
can, in fact, be interrupted by the ligation of one coronary
artery.”
It has been much debated whether the coronary arteries
are really terminal or end arteries. Anatomically, it may be
shown that they are not, since a n injection liquid can be made
to pass from one artery through communicating branches into
the other. All are agreed, however, that the anastomosis is
not sufficient to permit collateral circulation to keep a vascular
area alive after the distributing artery is blocked. The effect
of plugging of the artery is the production of what is known as
an ansemic infarct, a well-recognized pathological condition,
the consideration of which need not detain us. A very impor-
tant matter relates to the effect of plugging of the coronary
arteries upon the heart-beat; the contractions become of the
type known as fibrillary, and it is difficult or impossible to get
the organ to resume the ordinary co-ordinated beats, though
experimentally this has been done, even after fibrillary con-
traction has been established.
The relation of coronary-artery disease to angina pectoris,
which was suggested by Jenner, has directed the very particu-
lar attention of writers to the changes in these vessels. It does
14 ANGIXA PECTORIS AND ALLIED STATES.
one good to look over the older literature, and to note the ac-
curacy with which some of the cases have been recorded, par-
ticularly by Morgagni. Parry, too, gives an interesting series
from the older writers. The subject is so extensive that I can
not enter upon it here in great detail, but I may, perhaps,
bring it before you with sufficient emphasis if I speak of the
common sequences in connection with illustrative cases.
The coronary arteries are very subject to degenerative
changes, particularly in persons who have passed the middle
period of life. They may be affected alone or as part of a wide-
spread disease of the vessels. For practical purposes we need
not consider any other change than arterio-sclerosis in its vari-
ous grades, from a trifling thickening to atheroma and rigid
calcification. W e must, however, recognize an affection of the
orifices of the arteries, apart from the common degeneration
of the trunks. A gradual narrowing of the orifice of a vessel
may be quite as serious as extensive disease of the branches.
There is a form of aortitis met with not infrequently i n men
between the ages of thirty and forty, who have had syphilis
and who have worked hard and drank deep (devotees of
Venus, Bacchus, and Vulcan), in which the intima is swollen,
almost corrugated, with fresh translucent areas of endarteritis.
I skip all considerations of its anatomy. Three serious se-
quences may follow: ( a ) Rupture of the aorta, sometimes
only of the intima, as clean cut as with a razor, in half or a
third of the circumference, sometimes with the formation of
a dissecting aneurysm; ( b ) the slow development of the ordi-
nary form of aneurysm of the arch; and ( e ) narrowing of the
orifices of the coronary arteries. Angina attacks, sudden
death, and slowly developing myocarditis and its sequences are
the possibilities in this third category. I pass around this fine
plate of Corrigan’s, taken from the Du61in JournnZ, in which
you see great swelling of the intima above the valves, due, as
Corrigan expressed it, " to an effusion of organized lymph be-
tween the lining membrane and the fibrous coat." The pa-
tient in this case, a man only thirty-nine years of age, suffered
with severe attacks of angina.
Let me illustrate by these specimens some of the more com-
mon pathological conditions associated with disease of the
branches of the artery. IIere is an extraordinary heart, which
illustrates how much of the coronary circulation can be cut off
if the obstruction takes place gradually. The organ was taken
from a man aged aboiit thirty-six or thirty-seven, who had
been an inmate for eighteen years of the Institution for
Feeble-minded Children at Elwyn, Pa. H e was a large,
powerful imbecile, dumb but not deaf. H e was very good
tempered, did a great deal of work about the farm, and fre-
quently did very heavy lifting. IIe never had epilepsy; he
was not known to be short of breath, nor had he complained
or indicated in any way that he was out of health. One
afternoon he had a sort of fit, the face became very much con-
gested, and he died in about half an hour. There was nothing
special found in the brain. The heart, as you see, is large, and
weighed twenty ounces. There was general hypertrophy with
dilatation. There was quite extensive fibroid myocarditis,
particularly in the anterior wall of the left ventricle, at the
apex, and in the lower portion of the septum ventriculorum;
the valves were normal. But what I wish you to examine
most particularly is the state of the coronary arteries, which
are freely dissected out. The left vessel is almost obliterated,
only a pin-point channel remaining, while of the right artery
the main division passing between the auricle and ventricle is
converted into a fibroid cord!
It is much more common to find one artery extensively dis-
eased, or even completely obliterated. Take, for example, this
specimen, which was removed from a colored man, aged about
thirty-five, who had aortic insufficiency, with dyspncea and

edema of the legs. H e died suddenly, though he had for
some weeks great dilatation of the heart and general anasarca.
The aortic segments are curled and thickened; the ascending
arch is greatly deformed, with a recent general endarteritis.
There are a few calcareous plates. The right coronary artery
is completely obliterated. There is no opening whatever on
the aorta. The left vessel is dilated, and presents atheroma-
tous patches. There are areas of fibrous myocarditis in the left
ventricle, but in other respects the muscular substance of the
heart does not look abnormal, and it is not fatty.
Here is a much more common condition. I n this anterior
coronary artery you see a firmly adherent thrombus, which
completely occludes the descending branch, to the lumen of
which it is firmly attached. It was taken from a man about
fifty years of age, who had mitral-valve disease and had a good
deal of cardiac dyspncea. Early one morning he was seized
with severe pain about the heart and shortness of breath, and
died in a very few moments. Both coronary arteries were
thickened and calcified, and presented atheromatous plates,
but no doubt the sudden death was due to the blocking of the
anterior branch of the left coronary artery by the thrombus.
When the occlusion has persisted for any length of time
before death the condition of anremic necrosis may be found.
I ani sorry not to have a fresh specimen to show you, but most
of you have, no doubt, seen microscopic, if not macroscopic,
examples. It is important in the dissection of the heart to
slice carefully the septum and the wall, as these infarcts of the
heart muscle are found in numbers directly proportionate to
the care with which they are sought. We have not had any
very large number of cases. They are much more common, I
think, in hospitals with old chronic cases, or with which there
are in connection large almshouses, as at the Blockley Hospi-
T H E CORONARY ARTERIES. 17
tal. I was much impressed at that institution with the num-
ber of cases of anaemic infarcts-many more than I saw at the
Montreal General Hospital or have seen here. They occur
most frequently in the walls of the left ventricle and in the
septum, particularly toward the apex. When fresh they
stand out beyond the level of the surrounding muscle, and are
sometimes very firm, yellowish white, or even quite opaque
white in color. With the fresh infarcts there may be old
fibroid patches, into which ultimately these areas of anzemic
necrosis are transformed.
To complete the series, I show you here sections of the de-
scending branch of the left coronary artery, which you see is
almost completely obliterated by an old, much-altered throm-
bus. This case illustrates another sequence of slowly develop
ing coronary artery disease-namely, fibroid myocarditis at
the apex, with weakening of the wall, and the gradual forma-
tion of aneurysm of the heart. The specimen was taken from
the body of a large, powerfully built man whose heart symp-
toms developed with great abruptness, and who presented for
many months an obscure train of symptoms pointing to serious
disease of the myocardium.
Autopsies on cases of angina pectoris are not common.
The man with a fresh thrombus in the anterior branch of the
left coronary artery probably died in a paroxysm of angina,
but he had not had previous typical attacks. As I will tell you
later on, the affection is rare in hospital practice so that we do
not have opportunities of making the inspection of the bodies
of persons who have died of the disease.
And, lastly, a few words on the innervation of the heart, a
cardinal point, inasmuch as the very essence of the angina par-
oxysm must rest on some profound disturbance in the function
of the nerves. The newer methods of investigation have added
considerably to our knowledge of the distribution of the in-
trinsic nerves of the organ. Doubtless some of you have seen

in the pathological laboratory Dr. Berkeley’s wonderful speci-
mens illustrating the ultimate terminations of the filaments
between and on the fibres.* In looking at them one realizes
the truth of the remark of a recent author, that it is difficult
to say i n which the niyocardium is richer, nerve elements or
muscle fibres. Everywhere throughout the organ-in the tis-
sues beneath the endocardium and pericardium, throughout
the muscle substance, and about the blood-vessels-the nerves
are in extraordinary profusion. The double nerve supply you
know, from vagus and sympathetic, and the double function,
the former controlling, checking, and inhibiting, the latter
augmenting the force and hastening the frequency of the
heart-beats. The researches of His junior and Romberg have
shown that the ganglion cells of the lieart, even those lying in
the vagus branches, have the same origin as all other sympa-
thetic cells. They differ in protoplasmic appearances and in
other ways from the cells of the spinal ganglia. The rhythmic
action of the heart is probably automatic, due to a power in-
herent in the muscular fibres, though this point is still in dis-
pute. Of the functions of the nerves we know a good deal, of
the functions of the ganglia nothing. His and Romberg sug-
gest that from them are transmitted to the central nervous sys-
tem infinitely delicately graded, unconscious impulses, which
regulate the circulation reflexly through the vagus and accel-
erator. Of Kronecker’s eo-ordination centre our knowledge
is still very indefinite-indeed, its existence has been called in
question. I have seen Kronecker perform the experiment,
and certainly when the point in the dog’s heart is pricked-it
is situated about the lower limit of the upper third of the ven-
tricular septum-the organ becomes paralyzed in a state of
fibrillary tremor, from which it does not recover. This point
* Described in Johns Hopkins Hospital Reports, vol. iv.
is within the area of distribution of the anterior coronary
artery, the vessel oftenest found plugged by thrombus or em-
bolus in cases of sudden death.
Do these cardiac nerves possess other properties? Have
they also, with the special function, the endowment of receiv-
ing tactile and painful impressions? Certainly the heart is not
an organ of very acute sensibility. The most extensive lesions,
inflammatory, degenerative, and neoplastic, may not excite a
single painful sensation. Pericarditis of the most intense
grade, with deep involvement of the myocardium, may give
not the slightest indication of its existence.
In experimental work, pinching of the heart muscle may
excite reflex movements of the muscles of the body. There are
a few interesting cases in the human subject in which the heart
has been exposed by accident sufficiently to enable it to be
grasped or touched. I n the well-known. case which Harvey
gives* of the young Viscount de Montgomery, in whom
Charles I was so much interested, in consequence of a fracture
of the ribs on the left side, with excessive suppuration, the
heart was exposed, and from Harvey’s account was quite insen-
sitive: “Nempe, i n homine vivente et vegeto, citra idlam
offensam, cor sese vibrans, ventriculosqne ejus pulsantes vi-
deret, as manu tangeret. Factumque est, ut serenissimus Rex,
una mecum, cor sensu tactus privatum esse agnosceret.
Quippe adolescens, nos ipsum tangere (nisi visu, aut cutis ex-
terioris sensatione) neutiquam intelligebat.”
There is one other point of great importance. Sensory-
nerve endings have been demonstrated in the arteries by
Thoma, and recently Smirnow .f professes to have demon-
strated similar structures in the connective tismes of the heart,
he thinks the sensory-nerve beginnings of the depressor nerve.
* Exercitationes de generatione animalium, 1651, p. 311.
t Anatomischer Anzeiger, 1895.
LECTURE 11.
ANGINA PECTORIS VERA.
BTIOLOQY. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF T H E DISEASE.
Incidence of the disease.-Station in life.-Sex.-Age.-Epidemic influences.

-Heredity.-Gout.-Diabetes.-Syphilis.-Specific fevers.-Heart dis-
ease.-Locomotor ataria.-General picture of the disease.
INCIDENCE OF THE DISEASE-AS noted long ago by Sir

Gilbert Blaine, angina pectoris is a rare affection in hospital
practice. Gairdner criticises this statement rather sharply, and
yet I think that a majority of hospital physicians would be
found to support it. During the ten years in which I lived in
Montreal, I did not see a case of the disease either i n private
practice or at the Montreal General Hospital. At Blockley
(Philadelphia Hospital), too, it was an exceedingly rare affec-
tion. I do not remember to have had a case under my per-
sonal care. There were two cases in my service at the Univer-
sity Hospital. During the seven years in which the Johns
Hopkins Hospital has been opened, with an unusually large
C( material ” in diseases of the heart and arteries, and with
many cases of heart pain of various sorts, there have been

only four instances of angina pectoris. You will find the
statement in Fagge’s P ~ a c t i c e(third edition, vol. ii, p. 26)
that “ the writer has never seen classical angina in hospital
practice.”
On the other hand, an individual consultant may see within
a year more cases than occur in all the hospitals of his town
20
ANGINA PECTORIS VERA. 21
within the same period. I n corroboration of this striking con-
trast between the incidence of angina pectoris in hospital and
consulting work I may refer to the statistics of the Edinburgh
Royal Infirmary, in which for the two years covered by the
Nospital Beports,1893 and 1894, there were five cases among
a total of 8,868 medical cases. Compare with this the personal
experience of the distinguished Edinburgh consultant, Dr.
Balfour, who, in his recently issued work on T h e Senile Heart,
gives an analysis of ninety-eight cases of angina pectoris seen
within ten years. My individual experience embraces a series
of sixty cases, forty of which may be regarded as true an-
gina.
The predisposing causes of angina pectoris vera are those of
arterio-sclerosis; that is to say, so intimately associated is the
true paroxysm with sclerotic conditions of the coronary ar-
teries that it is extremely rare apart from them. Men of mus-
cular, even athletic build, who have been devotees of Bacchus
and of Venus, form perhaps the largest contingent. Gout,
syphilis, and hereditary influence the causation only so far as
they tend to cause sclerotic changes in the arteries; but it
would be altogether too narrow a view to suppose that the
Btiology of the disease is identical with that of arterio-sclero-
sis. The one is so common and the other comparatively rare
even among the individuals most prone to sclerosis, that there
must be a third element, an indefinite something, which yet
escapes our knowledge, but which is the essential factor in the
production of this terrible affliction.
STATION IN LIFE.-AS Sir John Forbes remarks, it is an at-
tendant rather of ease and luxury than of temperance and

labor; on which account, though occurring gmong the poor,
it is more frequently met with among the rich, or in persons
of easy circumstances. It is remarkable how many prominent
individuals have succumbed to the disease. W e may say of it
as Sydenham did of the gout, that more wise men than fools
are its victims.
I do not know that any special occupation or profession
predisposes to it, but the frequency with which physicians are
attacked has been commented upon by several writers. I n my
list of sixty cases of all forms, there were thirteen medical men,
eight of whom had true angina. This percentage is doubtless
exceptional, and due, in part at least, to my nomadic habits,
and wide acquaintance in the profession.
SEX.-From the earliest description of the disease, the re-
markable preponderance of males who are attacked h a been
noted. Heberden says: ('I have seen nearly one hundred
people under this disorder, of which number there have been
three women (Commentaries). The statistics collected by
)'
Huchard give in two hundred and thirty-seven cases of true

angina only forty-two in women. I n my own series of forty
cases of true angina there was only one woman.
AGE.-The age at which it is most common is that of ar-
terio-sclerosis-after the fiftieth year of life. Of the forty
cases on my list there were only four under the fortieth year.
One of these, a man, aged thirty years, had had syphilis five
years before; the other case, a woman, aged thirty-two years,
had mitral-valve disease; the third case had terrible attacks
of angina following chronic pleurisy. I n the fifth decade
there were thirteen; in the sixth, thirteen; in the seventh,
nine; and of one case I did not get the exact age. The aver-
age of the thirty-nine cases was about fifty-three years. Cases
are reported in quite young individuals, even in children, but
such are almost invariably the subject of chronic valvular dis-
ease or of adherent pericardium.
AND EMOTIONAL
EPIDEMIC,INITATIVE, INFLUENCES
Laennec was of the opinion that the prevalent type of disease
'(
influences its development," and adds, " I have some years met
with it frequently, and hardly at all in others.” You will find
reference in the literature to so-called outbreaks of angina
which have been reported by Kleefeld * and by Ge1ineau.f I
can not see that the cases recorded by Kleefeld have anything
to do with angina pectoris. H e describes the epidemic as a re-
inittent fever with gastric complications, and much pain about
the heart. Some of the cases were fatal, but no autopsies were
made. Young persons, chiefly women and children, were
attacked.
Gelineau, surgeon to the French corvette L’Embuscade,
reports a remarkable outbreak among the sailors during a pro-
longed cruise in the Pacific. Scurvy had broken out and the
men were much debilitated and ansemic. They became sub-
ject also to a severe dry colic. Following this there were many
cases of angina. The first case was that of an old sailor, scor-
butic and anzmic, who while climbing the mast was seized
with intense pain about the heart. Five days after, five other
men were attacked in the same sudden way, and three days
later, three more. Gelineau lays a good deal of stress upon
tobacco as a factor in the causation of the pain, and also upon
the debility following the scurvy, dysentery, and dry colic.
The effect of imitation, that extraordinary occult influence so
potent in many forms of hysteria, must, no doubt, be taken
into account. Perhaps the most notable instance is given by
Dr. Taber Johnson in his report of Mr. Sumner’s case.* “ I
have observed a curious fact, which it may be interesting to
refer to here. I mean the unusual number of patients suffer-
ing from this disease, who, previous to Mr. Sumner’s severe
illness, had never supposed that they had any disease of the
heart. This fact has been referred to by newspaper corre-
* Journal d. pract. Heilkunde, 1823, lvii.

t Gazette des ~ ~ p i t a w1862,
x , xxxv.
$ Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1874.
spondents-&., that during the illness of Mr. Sumner, and

especially since his death, instances of its occurrence have
considerably increased, and especially among those who
strongly sympathized with the late senator. This seemingly
sympathetic cause of disease has been noticed in other cases.
I have been consulted by as many as thirty individuals, since
Mr. Sumner’s death, who imagined they were afflicted with
his complaint. I n some of these cases there was organic dis-
ease of the heart, but in a majority of them there was no
cardiac trouble at all. Two weeks after the autopsy in Mr.
Sumner’s case, one of the physicians who assisted, a devot-
edly attached friend of the deceased, died of angina pectoris.
I am informed that Dr. Hitchcock had but a few attacks, and
that, prior to Nr. Sumner’s death, he had never been a suf-
ferer from angina pectoris.”
Dr. Johnson says that he himself suffered from two attacks
very closely resembling, if they were not really, angina. One
of these occurred immediately after Mr. Sumner’s death, and
Brown-Skquard, who was present, said the phenomena were
undoubtedly those of a paroxysm of angina. Twenty-two
years have passed, and, happily for himself, as well as for our
brethren of the District of Columbia, Dr. Taber Johnson has
now less mobile nerves.
I n Case X of my series of pseudo-angina the patient’s hus-
band died suddenly in a paroxysm of true angina.
Mental worry, severe grief, or a sudden shock may precede
directly the onset of the attacks. I n Case XXXVI, the parox-
ysms came on after the shock of the announcement that a son
had committed suicide.
HEREDrTT.’.-True angina pectoris is an arterial incident,
and since the members of certain families show a special tend-
ency to arterial degeneration, it is not surprising to find cases
in father and son, or in brothers, or even in representatives of
three generations. There are remarkable instances on record.

The first, and one of the most remarkable, is that reported
by Dr. Robert IXamilton,l" in which the father of the patient,
a young man aged twenty-four, two brothers, and one sister
were affected. I n all, the disease developed in early life; in
Hamilton's own patient, at the twelfth year. It is quite pos-
sible from his description that the disease may not have been
angina pectoris, but spasmodic asthma associated with heart
pain.
The best-known instance is that of the Arnold family. Wil-
liam Arnold, collector of customs of Cowes, died suddenly of
spasm of the heart in 1801. His son, the celebrated Thomas
Arnold, of Rugby, whose case I will narrate to you shortly,
died in his first attack. Matthew Arnold, his distinguished son,
was a victim of the disease for several years, and died suddenly
in an attack on Sunday, April 15, 1888,having been spared,
as he hopes in his little poem called A Wish-
(6
the whispering, crowded room,
The friends who come, and gape, and go;
The ceremonious air of gloom-
All, which makes death a hideous show! "
At the time of his death, the accounts which appeared in

the Lancet and British Medical Journal were not clear
as to the existence of attacks of angina. The various
stages in the progress of his illness can be traced very
well in his Letters,? in which you will find an account of
numerous attacks from &y, 1555, until the time of his
death. (Note B.)
I n looking over the literature one finds occasional refer-
ences to cases occurring in several members of one family.
* Medical Cvmmpnfnries, 1785, ix.

t Letters of Matthew Arnold. Macrnillan & Co., 1896.
3
Cazanave de la Roche * records three cases in one family-a

sister, who was affected at the time of the report, and two
brothers who had died of the disease. I n Case XXIII on my
list the patient’s father died of angina pectoris.
Gom-The relation of certain constitutional disorders to
angina pectoris has been much discussed. The importance of
gout as a factor was early suggested, and in this interesting
little monograph of Butter’s, which I show you here-the first
separate treatise on the disease-the author places the seat of
the disorder in the diaphragm, and calls it diaphragmatic
gout. The affection has also been termed asthma arthriticum.
Nathaniel Chapman advocated strongly the arthritic na-
ture of angina pectoris, and there can be no question, I think,
that in a certain number of the victims gout plays an impor-
tant r61e in inducing the arterio-sclerosis.
I have been particularly interested in examining into this
point in the cases which have come under my observation
within the past four or five years. There are four cases at
least of my series in which gout seemed to play a part. Dr.
-, of Virginia, seen April 3, 1894, a very robust, vigorous
man of forty-eight, temperate, a hard worker, who had not had
syphilis, and in whom the attacks were fairly characteristic,
thinks that gout (which is in his family) is directly responsible
for the attacks. Certainly, after using without benefit for
many months the iodides and the nitrites, he obtained the
greatest relief from a prolonged course of colchicum. It is
now more than two years since I saw him, and he remains
well. I n another case, a patient with attacks of angina pectoris
sine dolore, there had been attacks of acute articular gout.
I n a third case, a man aged sixty-four, the upper half
of the pinna of the lobe of the right ear was firm and calcified,
*La Tribune midicale, 1895,p. 832.

and the same process was beginning in the left ear. There
were no tophi, but the calcification was, to say the least, sug-
gestive. A fourth case was that of a physician from North
Carolina, aged forty-six, who had for many years attacks
of gouty arthritis, chiefly in the big toe, less frequently in the
ankles. There was a well-marked tophus in the right ear.
DIABETES.-The association of angina pectoris with dia-
betes has been frequently noted. No instance has fallen
under my personal observation. You mill find the whole sub-
ject very thoroughly discussed by Ebstein in a recent paper
i n the Berliner klini.de Wochertschrift of last year (1805).
SYPIIILIS is one of the potent factors in inducing arterio-
sclerosis, and thus indirectly plays a rBle in angina pectoris.
Of the cases in my series, only four gave a history of syphilis.
The instances of aortitis to which I have already referred, oc-
curring in the third and fourth decades in men who have had
syphilis, have worked hard, and have been heavy drinkers, are
sometimes associated with severe attacks of angina. I n Case I,
Lieutenant X., aged thirty years, a robust, powerful man, had
had syphilis six years before his visit to me. The secondary
symptoms were slight, and he had not had very thorough treat-
ment. A year before I saw him he began to have severe pains
in the heart, recurring in paroxysms, and associated with pain
down the left arm, and dyspnea on exertion. There was no
perceptible enlargement of the heart; there was a systolic
murmur at the apex and a soft bruit at the aortic area, with-
out special accentuation of the aortic second sound. The at-
tacks had been of such severity that he had been off duty for
many months. H e improved very much upon the iodide of
potassium, but still had attacks six months after I saw him,
since which time I have not heard of him. Corrigan’s case,
you remember, the illustrative plate of which I showed you
at the last lecture, was in a young man, and belonged to this
group. The frontispiece in Balfour’s work on the heart (sec-

ond edition) illustrates another case of the same kind in a still
younger man, aged twenty-four years. The angina attacks
were associated with an aortitis which narrowed greatly the
orifices of the coronary arteries.
SPECIFIC FEVERS.-h connection with the specific fevers
several writers have described angina-like attacks. Fraentzel,
in his Forlesungen ii6er die IKrankheiten des Gerzens (Berlin,
1889), describes attacks of angina pectoris in the weakened
and dilated lieart following the infections, particularly ery-
sipelas, typhoid fever, and pneumonia. J. W. Moore * has re-
ported two instances of angina symptoms in connection with
heart weakness during and after the specific fevers. In the
epidemic of a remittent fever reported by Kleefeld (and al-
ready referred to) the attacks of heart pain may have been of
this character. I do not remember to have seen a case in
which the attack developed during convalescence from one
of the ordinary fevers.
Among the many nervous sequel= of in$uenza, few are
more distressing than the attacks of severe cardiac pain. I n
some cases, indeed, the disease seems to have been the starting
point of attacks of true angina. The frequency of the compli-
cation in the practices of some physicians is remarkable. I n
a paper on The Action of Influenza Poison on the Heart, Cur-
tin and XTatson state that within two years they met with
fully seventy cases of painful attacks about the heart. The il-
lustrative cases in their paper t show that some of the attacks
must have been of very great severity, but, in most instances,
the duration of the disease was short and the cases evidently
belonged to the category of pseudo-angina. I have seen but
* D u b l i ~Medical Journal, 1890, vol. lxxxix.

f International Medical Magazine, January, 1893.
two instances in which the attack seemed to follow directly
upon the influenza. One is certainly pseudo-angina; the other
proved to be the genuine disease.
I saw on several occasions in Toronto a medical friend who,

after a tolerably severe attack of influenza about three years ago,
began to have attacks of agonizing pain about the heart. They
came on without warning, the pain appearing in various parts
of the chest, commonly under both shoulder blades, and espe-
cially severe in both wrists. There mas at first no irregularity
of the pulse o r difficulty in breathing; but in some attacks there
were piping rkles during expiration. At first these attacks were
almost nightly; several times they ended in vomiting (preceded
by profuse salivation), the passage of more or less flatus, and
copious sweating. There was no mental anxiety whatever, ex-
cept, as he expressed it, “the pain was so intense that I was
afraid I would recover, in order to endure it again.” The pain
in the arms was chiefly in the front of the wrists. The patient
had not had any serious illness previously, had never had syphi-
lis, had not been a heavy drinker, but had been a pretty heavy
smoker. The attacks recurred with intensity throughout the
early part of January. When I saw him thcre were no signs of
cardiac disease. He had had a good deal of digestive disturb-
ance. During the following summer and autumn he progrcs-
sively improved, and I heard from him recently to the effect
that now only in any extra strain, an in the attendance upon a
difficult case of labor, does he feel any pain. He used the iodide
steadily for some time without any special benefit. He at-
tributes more benefit to lavage of the stomach with hot
water night and morning. IIow far the influenza in this case
was responsible for the attack is, of course, difficult to say, but
when I saw him first he was very insistent that it was the cause of
his whole trouble. From the rapid way in which the attacks
have ameliorated and his present general condition there is,
to say the least, a strong probability that it is functional and
not associated with organic disease.
The other case was that of the late chief justice of this State,
who had, in the early winter of 1893, a very severe attack of
influenza with much fever and prostration. I n the latter part

of December he began to have pain about the heart in walking
briskly up a hill. Then he had more severe attacks, but in the
summer of 1894 he was better, and was able to take long walks.
The attacks recurred about Christmas, 1894. I saw him on
January 20, 1895. There was no enlargement of the heart,
the sounds were clear, the second aortic a little accentuated.
The only striking anomaly was a condition of trigeminal heart-
beats-groups of three beats, with an interval, followed in regu-
lar sequence. He improved very much through the summer
of 1895. I n October he had a severe shock on hearing of the
sudden death from angina of his brother-in-law (Case XXXV
on my list). He did not, however, have any recurrence until
December. I saw him on January 5, 1896. The paroxysms
had become more frequent and very severe. I n the following
week he died in an unusually prolonged attack. The onset of
the angina corresponded with the period of convalescence from
the influenza, which he always insisted had caused the attacks.
HEARTDISEASE.-Paroxysms of agonizing substernal

pain, with radiation to the neck and arm, are rare in the ordi-
nary forms of heart disease which we meet with in hospital
work. Heart pain is common enough, and if we counted all
such cases as angina we would not have to lay stress on the in-
frequence of this syndrome in the wards. You remember the
small boy in Ward F during the early part of this session, with
greatly enlarged heart, probably from pericardial adhesions.
Pain was the most distressing symptom of the case, but it had
neither the intensity, the paroxysmal character, nor the ac-
companiments which warrant the diagnosis of true angina.
So, too, in the case of the old colored woman, at present in
Ward 0, with mitral-valve disease and extreme arterio-sclero-
sis. I have pointed out to you that the attacks of sudden
breathlessness and distress with transient pain, are of the na-
ture of cardiac asthma, with which, as I will tell you later,
angina pectoris is often confounded. Then, again, you have
to bear in mind the common complaint of pain beneath the

left breast in patients with chlorosis and various forms of
anzemia.
Of valvular affections, aortic insufficiency is that with
which angina pectoris is most frequently associated. Of the
forty cases in my list three presented signs of this lesion. The
subjects of the degenerative type of the disease, which de-
velops in men after the fortieth year, are much more prone to
angina than those in whom the insufficiency has followed en-
docarditis. The younger the subject, the greater the proba-
bility that the incompetency results from an acute aortitis,
as in Corrigan’s case, to which I have referred on several occa-
sions.
Angina pectoris is excessively rare in mitral-valve disease.
This is well illustrated by Nothnagel’s experience.* Of flfteen
hundred cases of valvular disease of the heart seen in hospital
and private practice, very many of which had symptoms of an-
gina, there was but a single case in which the syndrome oc-
curred in connection with mitral stenosis. Only one of my
cases, a woman, had a niitral lesion. By far the most common
heart disease with which angina is associated is chronic myo-
carditis, the signs of which are often dubious.
Cases of adherent pericardium and of aneurysm of the
aortic arch may present the features of typical angina, more
often, in my experience, of constant substernal pain or of
cervico-brachial neuralgia.
A majority of the subjects of angina present the signs of
arterio-sclerosis, with accentuation of the aortic second sound
and slight increase in the area of transverse heart dullness.
Some of the most rapidly fatal cases are those in which the
physical s i p s are very slight, or even absent. Of the cases on
* Verhandlungen des Congresses f.innere Bediein, Bd. x.

my list, in four only was the physical examination negative;

three presented apical or basic murmurs; of the remainder,
all of whom showed signs of sclerosis of the arteries, nine had
indications of myocardial changes.
LOCOMOTOR hmxrA.-Considering the close relationship
of syphilis to this disease, in which also arterio-sclerosis is so
common, it is not surprising that attacks of angina pectoris
should occur. No instance has fallen under my personal ob-
servation. You know that aortic insufficiency is not rare in
tabes. At Blockley the association was a matter of every-day
comment, and in the physical-diagnosis class we would send to
the out wards for the old tabetics to demonstrate the lesions of
arterio-sclerosis, and if not of aortic incompetency, of the ring-
ing metallic aortic second sound, which so often accompanied
the dilated and rigid aortic arch. You will find the subject
fully discussed by Leyden in the ZeitschraJ? f.klin. Medicin
for 188'7,and since his paper there have been several less im-
portant communications.
GENERAL PICTURE OF THE DISEAsE.-In any long series of
cases of angina we can recognize four groups:
I. Sudden Death, without other Manayestations of Angina
Pectoris.-Much more true of angina pectoris is what Andral
said of the fulminant form of cholera: it begins where other
diseases end-in death. The affection has indeed been called
by Sir Walter Foster a mode of death, which reminds one of
the expression of the physicians who spoke of Seneca's malady
as a meditatio mortis. No inconsiderable proportion of sudden
deaths in men of middle age and robust habits result from
coronary-artery disease, from the rapid culmination, so to
speak, of a condition which, in another (or on previous occa-
sions i n the individual himself), mould have caused an ordi-
nary attack of angina. Before all is over there may be a mo-
mentary conscious agony expressed by a cry, but i n other in-
ANGlNA PECTORIS VERA. 33
stances (and this is most frequently the case in the subjects of
angina) the death is literally instantaneous; more rapid, per-
haps, than that which occurs by any other mode.
Of the fifteen deaths in my series, eight took place sudden-
ly; in five, gradually by cardiac asystole; in one, I did not
learn the exact niode of death; in another, the patient died of
obstruction of the bowels. Of the eight cases, in five death
was sudden, almost without warning, and not in a paroxysm
of angina.
Mr. S. (Case XXVI) died on his doorstep; Mr. W. (Case
XXVII) died as he was leaving a friend's house; Dr. X. (Case
VIII) died as he was walking from one rooin to another. H e
had had cardiac arrhythmia, Cheyne-stokes breathing, and
marked mental disturbance; E. E. (Case XXXV) died in-
stantly on the edge of the bed as he was recovering from his
first attack of angina, not having had pains f o r nearly twenty-
four hours; Mr. R. (Case XI) fell over dead on attempting to
get out of bed. The literature abounds in cases of this sort,
and the proportion of the victims of angina who die abruptly
is much larger than my figures indicate. Forbes mentions
that of sixty-four cases sudden death occurred in forty-nine.
Anatomically it has been shown that lesion of the coronary
arteries is almost invariably present-either extensive artei.io-
sclerosis, embolism, thrombosis, or in rare instances the burst-
ing of a small atheromatous abscess in one vessel, such as killed
the celebrated sculptor Thormaldsen.* A n explanation of the
awful suddenness-" Life struck sharp on Death "-is prob-
ably to be found in the arrest of the heart in fibrillary con-
traction, such as takes place experimentally in animals after
ligation of a coronary vessel.
11. Beath i n the First We7Z-marked Payoxysm.-A man
++ Virchow's Archiv, Bd. XXY.

in full health, in the prime of life, may be seized with a parox-

ysm of angina, and die within a few hours. The cases in this
category are not numerous. Perhaps the most remarkable one
on record, which has become quite historic, is that of the cele-
brated Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, mho in the words of his distin-
guished son (also a victim of the disease), arose
a
...to tread
I n the summer morning, the road
Of death, at a call unforeseen,
Sudden.”
The following is Latham’s account: *

“T. A. was within a day of completing his forty-seventh
year. Up to a few hours before his death, both body and mind
seemed equally to give proof and promise of health. H e ‘still
took his accustomed pleasure and refreshment in strenuous
exercise. His thoughts were still busily employed upon the
highest subjects, conceiving and composing with wonderful
ease, rapidity, and power. He retired to rest at midnight on the
11th of June, 1842, feeling and believing himself to be in per-
fect health. At a quarter before seven the next morning his
medical attendant was called. What had previously occurred
and what followed I will give in the words of Dr. Bucknill, who
was with him during the short remaining period of his exist-
ence. ‘ On my entering his room he said that he was sorry to
disturb me so soon; and that he had not sent for me before,
thinking that it would go off. He added, “ I have had very
severe pain in the chest since five o’clock, at intervals, and it
gets worse, I think.” This pain was seated at the upper part
of the chest, toward the left side, and extended down the left
arm. He had been rather sick. He then asked me what the
pain was. “ What is it? ” He was now almost free from pain.
His pulse I could scarcely feel. The tongue was clean. There
was cold perspiration over his face. The feet and legs were
* Latham’s Works, vol. i, p. 453; New Sydenham Society, 1876. See

also Stanley’s L i f e of mornas Arnold.
cool, The breathing at this time not troubled. I gave him
immediately some hot, strong brandy and water, and having
ordered a mustard plaster for his chest, till this was ready I
applied hot flannels, and had his legs and arms rubbed and the
feet wrapped up in flannels wrung out of hot water and mus-
tard. The pulse became natural, the extremities more warm,
and he was frec from pain. The mustard plaster was brought and
put on. It was not large enough and I ordered another. The
pain then returning, I gavc him more brandy and water, and it
soon left him. And now he asked mc again what the pain was.
I told him I believed it was spasm of the heart. He exclaimed,
“Ah!” I asked him whether he had ever fainted in his life.
“No, never.” If he had at any time difficulty of breathing.
“No, never.” If any pain in his chest before. “No, never.”
I then asked him if any of his family had ever had any disease
of the chest. “Yes, my father had; he died of it.” He in-
quired if disease of the heart was suddenly fatal. I answered
that it was. “ Was it a common disease? ” I said not very com-
mon. “ Where do you find it most? ” ‘‘In large towns, I
think.” “ Why? ” “ Perhaps from anxiety and eager com-
petition among the higher, and intemperance among the lower
classes.” IIe was then quiet and free from pain, and I proposed
to l e n e him for a minute or two. He had no pain whatever
in my absence. On my return the perspiration was still in drops
upon his forehead. The pulse was again feeble, and I gave
him more brandy and water and had the flannels with mustard
renewed. An attack of pain was coming on. He said, “ I must
stretch myself.” I took one of his hands and held it until the
pain was gone off. It was of short duration. I said, “ I s it
gone? ” He answered, “ Yes, entirely,” adding that he “ could
scarcely bear it if it were as severe as it had been.” He then
asked me “ what was the general cause of this kind of disease.”
He then said, “ I s this likely to return?” I answered that I
was afraid it was, but that, as the attacks had been less severe
and less frequent, I hoped they would pass off. He next asked
me if the disease was generally suddenly fatal. I said generally
(for those who knew him were aware that it was impossible not
to tell him the exact truth). I then asked him if he had any
36 ANGINA PECTORIS AND ALLIED STATES,
pain. He said, “ None but from the blister; one can bear out-
ward pain, but it is not so easy t o bear inward pain.” I was
now dropping some laudanum into a wineglass, when he in-
quired what I was going to give him. I told him laudanum,
Hoffman’s anodyne, and camphor; and, while I was preparing
the mixture, and before I had finished, I heard a rattling in the
throat and a convulsiye struggle. I called out, and on turning
t o him I supported his head, which was thron-n back on my
shoulder. His eyes were fixed and his teeth set, and he was
insensible. His breathing was very laborious, his chest heaved,
and there was a severe struggle over the upper part of the body.
13s pulse was imperceptible, and after deep brcathings at a
few prolonged intervals all was over. B e died in little more
than half an hour after I first saw him.’”
The examination showed a soft, flaccid heart muscle. There
was but one coronary artery, and that, considering the size of
the heart, of small dimensions. It presented also a slight athe-
romatous deposit an inch from its orifice.
I n no case in my series did death occur in the first paros-

ysm. The most rapid case was Bfr. E. (Case XXXV), who
had an agonizing paroxysm at 2.30 P. x. on October 14th,
and several lesser recurrences throughout the night. There
was no attack on the 15th, and he passed a comfortable night.
On the 16th, at 9.10 A. M., he sat up on the edge of the bed
to be helped to the commode, and fell over dead, about forty-
two hours from the onset of the first attack.
111. Recurring Attacks extending over a Period of Nonths
ai’Peam.--llluch more commonly a victim of angina pectoris
has many paroxysms over a period of many months, or from
three or four to twenty or even twenty-five years. The re-
currences may be at long intervals, as in John IIunter’s case,
or they may render the patient’s life unbearable, since he feels
that the slightest transgression, muscular or emotional, may
precipitate a paroxysm. Many a poor sufferer has felt what
Senator Sumner expressed : This treacherous disease pro-
((
duces in my mind a positive uncertainty, when I go out of
my house, whether I shall ever enter it again a living man,
and, with the pain I have to suffer, makes my life such a bur-
den that the sooner it does its work the better I shall be
pleased. Life, at the price I have to pay, is not worth the hav-
ing.” Let me read you the history of a typical case of this
sort:
CASE XXVI.-Mr. S., an editor by occupation, aged fifty-
five, consulted me January 16, 1894, complaining of attacks
of agonizing pain in the region of the heart. The patient was
of a nervous temperament, but had been a very healthy man.
He had never done hard physical work and had been moderate
in the use of alcohol and tobacco. E e did not think that he
had ever had syphilis. Three years ago, following upon the
shock of thc announcement of the suicide of a son, he had his
first attack of severe pain about the heart. Ever since, the at-
tacks have recurred at irregular intervals, at first of a few weeks
or a month, but within the past year they have been very fre-
quent, so that he now rarely passes a day without paroxysms.
They vary a great deal in intensity. If he walks fast or makes
any unusual exertion he is stopped by an intense pain in the
heart, and he has to pant f o r breath. After lasting for half a
minute or so the pain passes off, and he is able t o resume his
walk. Any unusual emotion or excitement will bring on an
attack at once. He not uncommonly now has as many as a
dozen or morc attacks in the day. I n the severer paroxysms
he feels as if thc throat was greatly swollen, and says that both
his throat and his temples throb, and that he gets very red in
the face. As the attacks pass off he usually sweats quite pro-
fusely. From what I can gather, he did not appear to have had
paroxysms of terrible agony, in which the sense of impending
death was present. He says, however, that the feeling is as
though the heart was grasped in a vice, and the pains shoot up
the neck and down the left arm. Two weeks ago, in Philadel-
phia, while walking to the station, he felt an excessively severe
pain in the chest, became short of breath, and fell unconscious.
When he recovered he found himself in a neighboring chemist’s
T-
shop. He was able, however, t o proceed on his journey. While

in my waiting room this patient had two attacks, and while
I was examining him he had a third, the phenomena of which
I will describe to you later. Three days after his visit to me,
while walking up the steps of his house, he dropped dead.
The great majority of all cases of angina pectoris come in

this group.
IV. R a p i d l y Repeated Attacks over a Period of Days or

Weeks, with the Development o f a State of Cardiac Asystole
-2'e'tat de mal angineua-An individual in apparently good
health, who may not have had any indications of heart trouble,
or who may have had at some previous date an attack of an-
gina, is seized with a severe paroxysm. This passes away, but
there is shortly a recurrence, and for several days in rapid suc-
cession there are subintrant attacks, with increasing weakness
of the heart. Huchard describes the condition as l'e'tat de
mal angineux. I n a way, it is a counterpart of the status epi-
lepticus. The condition is one of terrible distress. I have
seen but two cases, and as this feature of the disease has not
been specially dwelt upon by writers, except Huchard, I will
read you an account of them both.
CASE XXXI1.-On January 3, 1894, I saw with Dr. Pole,

Mr. L., aged fifty-five years, merchant, who for a week had had
attacks of severe pain in the region of the heart.
The patient was a stout, large-framed man, who had lived
for many ycars a life of great activity. He had always enjoyed
very excellent health; never had had rheumatism. He has
seven healthy children. He had been a moderate smoker and
moderate drinker, chiefly of beer. He had not had syphilis.
Seven years ago, after a slight exertion, he had a very severe
attack of pain about the heart, which lasted, however, only a
day and then passed off. He had no recurrence and had been
very ~vcll,though, occasionally, he has been a little short of
breath on walking rapidly. A week ago, December 2'7th, a fire
occurred in his place of business, and he was naturally very
much excited, and helped to save the papers and books. That
night he had a severe attack of angina pectoris, accompanied
with vomiting and sweating. He was better the next day and
able to go out. Since then he has had three attacks, all of them
of a good deal of severity. He feels very weak and feeble and
the pains are severe enough to require morphine. Last night
they were very much worse.
He was a well-nourished, healthy-looking man. The pulse
was about 90, and there was no increase in tension; the radials
were not sclerotic, and though the temporals stood out promi-
nently, they were not firm. During the examination, the pa-
tient had an attack of very severe pain, and clasping his hands
over the heart rolled about upon the bed. He was flushed in the
face, and then broke out into a profuse perspiration. During
the attack the pulse did not change materially in character,
but remained regular. The pain was described as very intense,
n feeling as if the heart was grasped in something. It extended
also down the left arm and in very severe paroxysms down
the right arm. The apex-beat was difficult to feel on account
of the fat mamma. The cardiac dullness was not increased.
The sounds were clear at apex and base; the aortic second was
not acccntuated. The lungs were clear on percussion and the
breath sounds were normal.
The abdomen was distended and the stomach tympany was
high. As nitroglycerin and nitrite of amyl had no influence
whatever on his attacks, morphine was used.
On the 4th he was better. On the 5th and 6th he had very
severe attacks, requiring much morphine. On the 7th and 8th
he was still worse, and displayed a remarkable resistance to the
morphine. Thus, in the hours between ten o'clock Saturday
night and 1 P. M. on Sunday, he had received by mouth and by
hypodermic injection five grains of morphine, in spite of which
he scarcely slept at all, and at the time of the visit, the pupils,
though small, were not extremely contracted. So resistant
had he appeared to be to the morphine that we discarded the
tablets which had been employed and obtained a fresh solution.
The attacks of pain were of great intensity and recurred fre-

quently. They were of the sharp, agonizing form, and in the
intervals there was a dull, heavy weight. Only the fullest doses
of morphine on Sunday and Monday kept him free from pain.
On Tuesday he was somewhat better, and on Wednesday he was
almost free.
During these protracted attacks he was frequently almost
beside himself with the pain, and sweated very profusely, and
on Sunday and Monday and Tuesday he had severe attacks of
vomiting. There was no fever. O n Wednesday, the loth, he
was better. I saw him early on the morning of the 11th. He
had had a bad night with the shortness of breath. I found him
with a pulse of 115, small in volume; the heart sounds feeble
and distant. Thc change, so far as his heart was con-
cerned, was very striking, as the heart sounds had previously
been quite clear. To-day they were extremely feeble
and the action somewhat irregular. Over the left lung there
were numerous bronchial riiles, particularly in the axillary
region. I n the evening his condition seemed really critical.
The respirations were 40, labored; expiration prolonged, and
there were medium-sized rilles heard over the whole chest. He
was given whisky freely, Hoffman’s anodyne, and ammonia,
and in spite of the threatening condition in his lungs he was
given during the night two or three hypodermic injections of
morphine.
On the 12th and 13th the cardiac condition mas better. He
had had no attacks of pain since Wednesday. The bronchial
symptoms and cough continued.
On the 14th he was not nearly so well. The respirations
were hurried, the cough troublesome, and over the whole chest
piping rhonchi were heard. The pulse mas at about 120 and
feeble. He took his nourishment better, and the feeling of
weight about the heart had gradually diminished. All along,
the color of his face had kept pretty good, though that of the
finger tips was sometimes a little cyanotic.
On the 15th and 16th he was decidedly better, though the
wheezing rhonchi were still present everywhere. His expectora-
tion throughout these attacks had been muco-purulent, and
then purulent, but the cough was never paroxysmal. On sev-
eral occasions the urine presented slight traces of albumin.
January 21st. For the past few days the condition had been
better, little or no pain, less wheezing, and he has been sleep-
ing better and taking more food. Last evening, however, he
had hallucinations, and did not know where he was, thinking
he was in some hospital, and that his wife was his mother-in-
law. He seemed, however, so well that they thought partly
that he was joking. His wife stated, too, that on several occa-
sions during his illness he had made odd remarks, as if he did
not realize fully his surroundings. He spoke of it himself this
morning and joked about it, seeming quite clear and bright
mentally. The pulse was soft, 90, regular, and without in-
crease in tension; the heart sounds were a little feeble, but
clear. The bronchial d e s were still to be heard everywhere
over the chest. I left him, saying that as he was so much better
I probably would not see him again.
22d. Dr. Pole sent word that the patient died suddenly
at 2.45 this afternoon. He wrote: “I saw him about one
o’clock, after he had had a severe heart pang, which he de-
scribed as of a very sharp, cutting character, and he felt as
though his heart had stopped. The color changed as usual.
He had been cold all day at the extremities, though not more
PO than he had frequently been before. He rested fairly well
last night and took no morphine, but throughout the day he
has had cutting pains in his left hypochondriac region.”
CASE XXXVII1.-On the 24th of February, 1896, I saw,
at 10.30 A. Y., with Dr. Mary Sherwood, Mr. L., aged fifty-nine
years, who had been attacked at seven o’clock in the morning
with agonizing substernal pain.
He was a healthy man of good stock; his mother, still living,
was aged nearly ninety; his father died about the age of sixty,
of, so it is said, fatty heart. The patient had been an abstemious
man, of good habits, not a heavy smoker. During the past
thirty years he had scarcely had a day’s illness. For a year or
more he had been using the bicycle, and had noticed that he
was a good deal distressed and short of breath on going up hill.
For several weeks he has had occasional attacks of pain of a
4
singular character about the wrists, chicfly the left, which, he

said, felt as if encircled by a band. He has occasionally felt
pain about the elbow and the left shoulder. They did not seem
to be rheumatic. Yesterday he had a very comfortable day,
took a light evening meal, and went to bed feeling in his usual
health. He was aroused this morning at Seven o’clock with a
very Severe pain beneath the breast-bone. It extended to the
region of the apex, and was felt very severely down the left
arm and about both wrists. He became pale, but Dr. Sher-
wood, who saw him about half-past seven, said that the pulse
was not much affected. He obtained temporary relicf by in-
halations of the nitrite of amyl, but between eight and nine it
became so severe that he had to be given whiffs of chloroform.
I saw him at 10.30. He was a healthy-looking man, with
grayish hair and mustaches; there was no arcus senilis. He
was not sweating, and he did not look very greatly distressed.
The pulse was 90, of fair volume, without increase of tension,
and the coats of the vessel were not specially thickened. The
apex-beat was not easily t o be felt. The heart sounds were dull
and muffled at apex; there was no murmur at the base. The
aortic second sound was not accentuated. There was no dull-
ness over the manubrium. He had no respiratory distress, and
there were no piping rkles. The abdomen was not distended.
The intensity of the pain had passed, but he was still suffer-
ing a great deal from a very severe constant pain beneath the
breast-bone. He had not had any sweating or special coldness
of the hands or feet. He was ordered a quarter of a grain of mor-
phine, and to have it repeated at intervals if necessary. He
improved somewhat through the day, though the pain did not
entirely disappear. He had a pretty comfortable night.
On Tuesday, the %th, he seemed better. He had five or six
free movements from the bowels, and, as he insisted upon walk-
ing to the water-closet, they exhausted him a good deal.
1
On Wednesday, the 26th, without any active paroxysm, he
had a great deal of substernal pain, and his pulse became feebler.
IIe dreaded very much a return of the severe pain, and had
small doses of morphine at intervals. I did not see him again
until Thursday at 2 P . M . He had not had a good night, and
had become much worse through the morning, signs of great
cardiac weakness having appeared. He had had no sweating.
When I saw him he was greatly changed. The pallor was
marked, and the general depression extreme. There was no
sweating; the face was pale, rather than ashy gray. The tongue
was thickly furred. His mind was quite clear, and he coni-
plained only of feelings of great exhaustion and an uneasy pain
beneath the sternum. The head was low; the respirations were
not hurried. The pulse was scarcely to be counted, only a few
feeble beats reaching the wrist. There was no heaving over
the przxordia; the sounds at the apex were only just audible
in gallop rhythm. At the base the gallop rhythm could just
be perceived. There seemed to be a slight increase in the area
of cardiac dullness. He had been having hypodermics of stryeh-
nine one sixtieth, but one thirtieth was ordered every two
hours, and a hundredth of a grain of digitalin. He had passed
vcry small quantities of urine. At ten o’clock that evening he
was decidedly better; the pulse was stronger and the beats were
regular. There was still slight gallop rhythm a t the apex. The
sounds were very much more distinct. He complained a good
deal of an unpleasant gasping in his breathing at intervals,
which distressed him very much.
February 28th. Patient had had a rather restless night,
sleeping only at intervals, and being much distressed by gasp-
ings for breath. He had taken small quantities of nourishment,
and had had no vomiting. The pulse was regular, small, and
about the same as last evening. He had had digitalin and
strychnine regularly through the night. He had a very com-
fortable day, and seemed altogether better, though he had had
some slight delirium and wandering, particularly after waking.
He had slept with his head high, and had not been quite so
much troubled with the cardiac asthma. He had had no attacks
of pain.
29th. This morning he was not so well. He had had a
quarter of a grain of morphine at ten last night, which quieted
him, but he was aroused at intervals with a distressing sense
of the need of air. The delirinm was marked and he looked
distressed; there was no coldness of the hands and feet, and
no sweating. The pulse was feeble, irregular, and intermittent;

sometimes three and four beats were dropped in succession.
The apex-beat was not palpable. The heart sounds were only
just audible at the apex. There was a gallop rhythm. A t the
base the second sound could only just be heard. There was no
murmur. Throughout the day he was quiet, except for at-
tacks of gasping for breath, which were very distressing. At
5.30 the pulse could not be felt at the wrist. He was con-
scious; the respirations were not hurried, though every five o r
ten minutes he would become a little restless and gasp. The
heart sounds could be heard both at apex and base; a very dis-
tinct embryo cardia, but no murmur. The feet and hands were
cold, but he had had no sweating. It was rather remarkable
to see a man in such a desperate condition entirely conscious
and perfectly alive to his surroundings. He was at times very
nervous and restless. Throughout the evening he grew worse;
the heart sounds became feebler, and after a period of terrible
distress f o r an hour or more, death occurred, about six days
after the onset of the first paroxysm.
LECTURE 111.
ANGINA PECTORIS VERA.
PEENOMENA OF THE ATTACK.
Exciting causes.-Symptoms.-State of heart and pulse,-Pericarditis.-

Respiratory features.-Gastro-intestinal symptoms.-Nervous and psy-
chical symptoms.
EXCITING
CansEs.-There are three important elements-
muscular exertion, mental emotion, and digestive disturbances.
Any muscular effort which calls for increased action of the
heart is liable to bring on a paroxysm. Heberden refers par-
ticularly to this: “ They who are afflicted with it are seized
while they are walking, more especially if it be up hill.’’
Some patients who can not walk except on the level without
bringing on a paroxysm can, however, take active horseback
exercise. I n extreme cases even an attempt to move in bed
or assuming the sitting posture will cause an attack, or such
slight exertion as stooping to lace the shoes. Hurrying to
catch a train has been often the exciting cause of a fatal attack
in the subjects of angina. The muscular and mental excite-
ment of coitus is particularly dangerous, and has in many in-
stances caused death. Two of my patients laid great stress
on the terrible character of the attacks which had followed
the act.
The well-known effect of mental emotion has never been
better expressed than by John Hunter, who used to say that
‘(his life was in the hands of any rascal who chose to annoy
45
and tease him.” And yet some of the victims of angina have
not found mental excitement to be the most serious exciting
cause. Thus, in Mr. Sumner’s case, ‘(a sudden turn in his
easy-chair, while quietly reading at night, would start up the
most tearing agony, while at other times an exciting speech
in the Senate, accompanied with the most forcible and mus-
cular gesticulations, would not create even the suggestion of
a pain.”-(Taber Johnson.)
F o r some of the worst attacks, however, neither muscular
action nor mental emotion is responsible, since they come on
when the patient is quiet and at rest, or may wake him from
sleep. Cold is another exciting cause, particularly in the vaso-
motor form, but in the organic variety a cold wind, even the
opening of a window in winter, or the cold sheets at night
have been known to bring on an attack.
I n almost every case in which the paroxysms recur with
frequency the patient lays stress upon the condition of the
stomach. Exertion immediately after a full meal, the eating of
certain articles of food, and especially of late suppers, are very
apt to cause attacks; and, as I will mention later, there are in-
stances in which the dyspepsia is so marked a feature that the
character of the disease is entirely overlooked. I n some pa-
tients flatulency is one of the most common exciting causes.
SmPTo~s.-In the report of the two cases which I read to
you at the end of the last lecture I described the phenomena
associated with severe attacks. The physician has not often
an opportunity of watching the onset and course of a parox-
ysm. Only once that I remember did a patient have an attack
i n my consulting room, Mr. S., to whose case I have already
referred (XXVI). As he sat quietly in the chair, just after
the completion of my examination, his eyes became fixed and
he suddenly grasped both hands over the heart. For a moment
the face did not change; then it flushed, and the neck became
AKGINA PECTORIS VERA. 47
swollen, and the cervical veins full. The face became very
much congested, and tears filled the eyes. The respirations,
which had been 18, increased to 30 in the minute. The pulse,
which had been 80, increased to 90, and became smaller and
harder. Considering the increase in the respirations, and the
congested state of the face and neck, I was surprised that the
pulse changed so little. I I e remained immobile during the
entire attack, which lasted just a minute and a half, passing
off abruptly, and he at once began to put on his clothes.
There are two chief elements in the paroxysm: first, the
pain-dolor pectoris; and second, the indescribable feeling of
anguish and sense of imminent dissolution-amgor aninzi.
The resources of the language have been taxed to describe
the pain of angina pectoris. Patients speak of a hand of iron
grasping the heart, or a band of metal encircling it and being
gradually tightened; or as though an enormous weight was
compressing the breastbone against the spine, or as though
the whole chest were compressed in an iron case. In other in-
stances the pain is associated less with pressure than with the
sensation of stabbing, as though a dagger had transfixed the
heart. While the maximum intensity of the pain is substernal
(whence the name of sternalgia is derived), it may be in the
upper or lower part of the breastbone, or over the body and
apex of the heart. There are cases in which the chief agony
is opposite the point of the xiphoid cartilage in the scrobiculus
cordis. During an attack there may be marked tenderness
over the region of the heart, or the left breast or the nipple
may be tender to the tonch. The pain may cease as abruptly
as it began. One of Parry’s patients said the transitions from
acute pain to a state of ease were so sudden that at times he
felt both extremes at the same moment.
A feature noted by Heberden and all the early writers
was the radiation of the pain to other parts. Heberden says:
“ It likewise very frequently extends from the breast to the
middle of the left arm. ... The pain sometimes reaches to

the right arm as well as to the left, and even down to the
hands, but this is uncommon. I n a very few instances the
arm has at the same time been numbed and swelled.” I n
an instance reported by Heberden the patient had attacks of
pain in the left arm without any affection of the chest for fif-
teen years prior to his sudden death. The pain most common-
ly extends to the shoulder, to the left upper arm, and to the
neck of the same side. When it extends to the arm and hand
it is along the inner surface of the upper arm, and in the lower
arm on the ulnar side in the distribution of the ulnar nerve.
The feeling is one of numbness and tingling, or of pins and
needles. There may be hypermthesia of the skin. Very
often the chief pain is in the region of the elbow, or there
may be, as in a case I have already narrated to you, a band-
like sensation around the wrist. Sometimes the radiation of
the pain is more marked in the right arm and in the right side
of the chest. Quain states that Dr. Morison has reported a
case in which disease of the right side of the heart was ac-
companied by symptoms of angina affecting the correspond-
ing side of the chest and arm. Curiously enough, as noted
by Heberden, the pain in the arm may precede the angina
attacks for years. Blackall, in the interesting appendix upon
Angina to his work on Dropsies, refers to the account which
Lord Clarendon gives of his father’s sudden death, evidently
from angina, “ without one minute’s warninge or feare,”
though the pain is said to have been only in the arm. As
this case is often referred to, I will give you the extract from
the L ; f . Mr. Hyde was in church, and “found himself a
little pressed as he used to be.’, Going to his home, “ t h e
pain in the arm seizing upon him, he fell down dead, without
the least motion of any limb.’, I n some cases there is sen-
sory disturbance throughout the entire left side, a feeling of

numbness or tingling in the neck, arm, and leg. There are
instances on record of extension of the pain to the left testis,
with swelling; or the attack may begin with furious pain in
this organ.
There are very interesting areas of cutaneous hyper-
Esthesia in the attacks, chiefly in the prsecordia, about the
pectoral fold, and sometimes along the side of the neck. They
have been studied particularly by Mackenzie, and are rarely
absent.
I do not know of any clearer view in explanation of the
radiation of the pain in angina than that which was afforded by
the late Dr. James ROSS,of Manchester. I will quote a brief
summary. I do not know whether it was ever elaborated.
" When a viscus was diseased there was local pain which might
be regarded as of splanchnic origin (prsecordial pain in the

case of the heart). I n addition, the irritation was conducted
to the portion of the spinal cord from which the viscus de-
rived its splanchnic nerve, and thence spread in the gray
matter of the posterior horns, whence by the law of eccentric
projection it was referred to the termination of the somatic
nerves derived from the segment of the cord-the second and
first dorsal in the case of the heart. This explained the pain
shooting between the shoulders and down the inner side of the
arm (second dorsal) to the elbow and the ulnar border of the
forearm and hand and ulnar fingers (first dorsal)." *
The subsequent studies of Mackenzie and of Head have
fully corroborated this view. Head f concludes that:
" 1. I n diseases of the heart, and more especially in aortic
disease, the pain is referred along the first, second, third, and
fourth dorsal areas.
*Lancet, 1891, i. f Brain, mi.

" 2. In angina pectoris the pain may be referred in addi-
tion along the fifth, sixth, seventh, and even the eighth and
ninth dorsal areas, and is always accompanied by pain in cer-
tain cervical areas."
A very remarkable feature is the motor disability which
may follow a severe attack. The left arm may not only be
numb, but for a time almost powerless. Blackall says that he
has seen instances in which the muscles of the arm and chest
were not only painful, but were affected with a twitching
noticeable by the patient, and visible to the observer. B. W.
Richardson * says " the voluntary muscles seem to be affected
and rigid." Still more extraordinary is the fact, noted by
Eichhorst, f of atrophy of the muscles of the hand supplied
by the ulnar nerve.
Von Dusch, in his admirable Lehrbuch der IIerzkran2-
heiten (which remains one of the best works of its kind in the
literature), refers the hiccough, the occasional difficulty in
swallowing, the globus and uneasy feelings in the throat, and
the gastric symptoms to sympathetic involvement of the
phrenic and vagus nerves.
Paso-motor disturbances are almost constant in the attack.
A sudden pallor of the face may be the first indication, and,
as a rule, vaso-constrictor influences prevail in the severe
paroxysms. A cold sweat breaks out upon the forehead and
upon the arms and legs. I n recurring attacks I have seen the
skin of the hands like that of a washerwoman from constant
soaking in perspiration. As in Case XXXV, there may be
great pallor and coldness without sweating. Though rarely
absent in the organic form of the disease, these vaso-constrictor
disturbances are often more pronounced in the hysterical an-
gina. The ]countenance is expressive of the deepest anguish,
* Asclepiad, vol. xi.
t Handbuch der epeciellen Pathologie, 5te Adage.
and may assume a deathlike, ashen hue. I n other instances,
as in Case X X V I , the face is suffused, or even deeply con-
gested at the outset, and the veins of the neck may stand out
prominently. More commonly in a fatal paroxysm there is
pallor at first, which is followed by great lividity, as noted by
Powell * in a man who died in his consulting room.
Complaints of coldness and of swelling of the extremities
are more frequent in the hysterical form.
I n many cases of true angina the pain alone is experienced,
but in severe paroxysms the other factor-the mental element,
the angor aniini-is also present. Latham was the first to dis-
tinguish clearly these two features of the attack: “ The sub-
jects of angina pectoris report that it is a suffering as sharp
as any that can be conceived in the nature of pain, and that
it includes, moreover, something which is beyond the nature
of pain-a sense of dying.” And he adds, “ the dying sensa-
tion I have more frequently found to surpass the pain than
the pain the dying sensation.” The one is in reality a physi-
cal, the other a mental phenomenon, and was described by
Heberden’s unknown correspondent as the sensation of a
universal pause in the operations of Nature, or a sense of im-
minent and immediate dissolution. This feature of the attack
was certainly referred to by Seneca (quoted by Gairdner)
when he says, “ As compared with any other disease, it is like
the difference between being sick merely and giving up the
ghost.” Associated with this sensation there may be a feel-
ing of air-hunger, or, as one patient expressed it to me, the
same sensation that one has after holding the breath for as
long as possible; yet the attack is not necessarily associated
with any special respiratory disturbance.
The attitude during a n attack is best described by the
* Practitioner,vol. xlvi, p. 254.

word immobile. If seized on the street, the patient grasps a

lamp-post or leans against a wall, unable to stir until the agony
has passed off. The attack usually comes on during some
slight exertion, while the patient is in an erect posture. H e
may be quite unable to sit down. I n other cases, when the
attack comes on at night, the patient usually assumes the sit-
ting posture, or he finds slight relief by pressing a firm pillow
to the chest, or by pressing firmly against the back of a chair.
Immobility, however, is not a constant feature of a parox-
ysm of true angina. I n Charles Sumner’s case, Dr. Taber
Johnson notes that he would at times get ease by walking the
floor, quite unconscious of any increase in the agony by the
exertion. I n others the erect posture is assumed with the
head and shoulders thrown back. One patient assured me
that in moderate attacks on the street, by a strong effort of
the will, he could continue to walk and the pain gradually
subsided. This is like the gigantic farmer, of whom Forbes
tells, who thought he could rule the disease a3 he did his
horses.
STATEOF THE HEART AND PnLsE.--Heberden states that
“ the pulse is at least sometimes not disturbed by this pain,
consequently the heart is not affected by it.” Parry is more

positive as to the occurrence of change, holding that “ what-
ever may be the state of the pulse as to regularity, I believe
we shall always find it become more or less feeble according
to the violence of the paroxysm.” The question is one about
which very diverse opinions are held, and you will find in vol.
i of the Lancet, 1591, several interesting letters which passed
between Professor Gairdner and Dr. Harrington Sainsbury.
It is quite evident that there are good authorities who accept
the statement that in some cases at least the paroxysm is not
associated with special change in the pulse, and consequently
not in the action of the heart.
The opportunities for observing the paroxysm do not come
very often, and when they do the condition of the patient is
such that our efforts are directed rather toward his relief than
to the study of special points in the case. I n an attack of
moderate severity, such as Mr. S. (Case X X V I ) had in my
consulting room, the pulse, which had been 80, increased to
90 in the minute, and became smaller and harder. The ten-
sion certainly became increased, but I had not time to do more
than count the radial beats for half a minute and to listen
hurriedly to the heart sounds before the attack was over. I n
Case X X X I I , in the first paroxysm in which I saw him, Janu-
ary 3d, the state of the pulse threw me a little off my guard;
it was full and regular, and did not change much, if at all.
I am not certain that it was an intense attack, as he threw him-
self about on the bed, the face was flushed, and there was a good
deal of commotion. Subsequently the pulse became feeble
and irregular, 115 a minute. Then, on the day before his
sudden death, the pulse was soft, regular, without special ten-
sion, and 90 a minute. I n Case X X I I I the pulse fell in the
paroxysm to 42 in the minute and became small and soft.
For days the range had been about 96. For several hours
after the paroxysm the beats at wrist and at heart ranged
from 40 to 50 a minute. Subsequently the heart beats be-
came more numerous than the pulsations at the wrist, rang-
ing from 60 to 70 a minute. I n Case X X X V I I did not see
the patient in his first paroxysm, but three hours later the
pulse was 90, of fair volume, regular, and without increase
of tension. On succeeding days, as the attacks increased in
frequency, the pulse became small, feeble, and at times could
not be felt. Following a series of severe attacks, the pulse
may be persistently small and irregular, as in Case XXXV.
I n Case IV, that of a man, aged forty-five, admitted to the
University Hospital, Philadelphia, February 24, 1887, I had
several opportunities of feeling the pulse during the parox-

ysm. On the 25th the pulse was 80, regular, and small, and
the respirations 34. During an intense paroxysm the pulse
became more and more feeble and at last could not be counted.
This sentence I find underlined in my notes.
Osgood has called attention * to a remarkable difference
i n the radial pulse of the two sides. The case was one of hys-
terical angina in a young girl. Huchard (p. 524) refers to its
occurrence in true angina, both in the attacks and in the in-
tervals. The heart’s action in severe spells is probably always
disturbed, the force of the impulse weakened, and the rhythm
altered. There are two changes which have been most com-
mon in my experience-namcly, the shortening of the long
pause and the occurrence of gallop rhythm. Whatever may
be the mechanism of the production of these changes, they
both, I think, mean the same thing, weakening of the ven-
tricular systole from dilatation, and debility of the muscular
wall. The case which called my attention to the f e t a l heart
rhythm following angina I saw with Dr. Underwood, at Pitts-
ton, Pa., in February, 1889. The patient, Case VI, aged
sixty, had well-marked signs of myocarditis, with cardiac
asthma and severe pains about the heart and down the arm,
so that he had to take morphine freely. I saw him shortly
after an attack; the pulse was 104, weak, and irregular. At
apex and base the sounds were clear, rather ringing in quality,
and all distinction between the two seemed lost. “ There was
a shortening of the pause between the second and the first
sounds, so that they followed each other in a uniform series,
as in the f e t a l heart beat.” This, so-called, embryocardia was
a most persistent feature in Case V, and was present also in
Cases XIX, XXIX, XXXV, and XXXVI. The gallop
* American Journal of the Medical Sciences, October, 1875.

rhythm is, I think, met with quite as often, and was present
after attacks in Cases XI, XIII, XIX, XXXII.
It does not fall to the lot of many physicians to witness
a sudden death in angina, but there are observations to show
that the pulse beats (and the heart) stop abruptly. Potain
mentioned a case to Huchard (p. 525), and in the case of our
good friend, Mr. E., Case XXXV, Dr. Thayer, who was pres-
ent, tells me that the death seemed instantaneous-the pulse
ceased at o m e , and there were no further heart beats.
(Note C.) As I before remarked, the mode of death resem-
bles that produced by Kronecker's heart puncture.
As the subjects of angina pectoris present very frequently
the signs of arterio-sclerosis and increased tension, you will
often find a ringing, accentuated, aortic second sound. A n
aortic diastolic murmur is much more common than my fig-
ures would indicate. As I have already mentioned, mitral-
valve disease is rarely present. There is a very interesting
feature in certain cases of angina with recurring attacks-
viz., that with the development of a mitral systolic murmur
the attacks have ceased as though a relief of the intraven-
tricular pressure had been effected by the establishment of a
relative mitral insufficiency. My attention was called to this
point by Musser,++who has had several illustrative cases, and
Broadbent has dwelt particularly upon this point.?
PE:nIcARDITIs.-During a severe attack pericarditis may
develop from the involvement of the epicardium in a soften-
ing infarct (Kernig). $ Dock # has described the onset of
pericarditis in a case of thrombosis of the coronary artery,
due to the same cause. Hood [I records a case in which the fric-
* Transactions of the Association of American Physicians, x, p. 85.
t British Hedical Journal, 1891, i, p. 747.
$ Quoted in Lancet, August 20, 1892.
* Medical and Surgical Reporter, 1896.
1 Lancet, 1584, i, p. 205.
tion developed twenty-four hours after the attack, and sub-

sequently there were signs of effusion. I n the discussion
which followed, De H. Hall mentioned a similar case.
RESPIRATORY FEaTnxEs.-We have here to consider sev-
eral important points-the symptoms in the attack, the rela-
tion of cardiac asthma to angina, and the interesting group
of cases of chronic pleuro-pulmonic affections in which angina-
like attacks of great intensity occur.
(a) I n the attack, except slight acceleration in the move-
ments, there may be no special changes. You will remember,
in reading John Hunter’s case, that, as he expressed it, he
felt as though he had forgotten to breathe; and a patient may
feel some sort of relief from the pain by voluntarily fixing
the chest at the full inspiration, or by making a very forced
expiration and holding the breath. I n a lethal attack the
respiration may become slowed and sighing, and a few gasps
follow the abrupt cessation of the heart’s action. One of the
most remarkable features of the attack to which the attention
was early called is the development of a bronchial asthma.
Erasmus Darwin * called the disease painful asthma-asthma
doloriJicum-without, so far as I can see from his account,
any justification. On auscultation one hears over the chest
numerous sibilant rilles, and the breathing may become
labored and expiration much prolonged. Huchard likens it
to a condition of acute emphysema. I n Case X X X I I , which
I gave you in full at the last lecture, the attacks of shortness
of breath with piping riles formed a very distressing feature
in the case. The expectoration was muco-purulent ; Cursch-
mann’s spirals were never found. Throughout the illness,
which persisted for several weeks, this condition continued,
and was the cause of much annoyance. Though Heberden
-
* Zoonomia, third ed., 1801, p. 41.

ANGINA PECTORIS VERA, 57
does not refer specially to the asthma, he speaks of two pa-
tients who had spat up blood and matter. Many patients have
referred particularly to the " wheezing " which has accom-
panied the attacks. Goodhart," who describes the condition
as an acute bronchitis, thinks it of very grave prognosis. The
same bronchial wheezing is present in some cases of cardiac
asthma and doubtless gave the name to this symptom,
( b ) Cardiac asthma may develop during an attack or al-
ternate with the paroxysms of pain. I n another lecture I
shall speak more at length on the relations of this feature to
angina, particularly to the angina pectoris sine dolore. Here
I wish only to call your attention to the distressing spells of
dyspncea, chiefly nocturnal, which may come on in the sub-
ject of angina, either independently of or following an attack.
I n the cases with advanced arterio-sclerosis the cardiac asthma
may be the most pronounced and distressing feature, dis-
turbing the patient at night, making him dread to fall asleep,
owing to the horrible sensations which accompany the awaken-
ing in a paroxysm of dyspncea. The subject may die in an
attack of angina after a long series of asthmatic seizures.
Case X X I I I , Dr. -, aged forty-seven years, from Santa
F6, N. M., had advanced arterio-sclerosis. Fifteen months
before his death he had an attack of angina; then for a year
he had many attacks of cardiac dyspnea, chiefly nocturnal,
and once had transient hemiplegia with aphasia. H e died
after several paroxysms of terrible angina, recurring in the
course of twelve hours.
Cardiac asthma is an everyday symptom in the course of
chronic valve disease and cardio-sclerosis. I n hospital prac-
tice it is as common m angina pectoris is rare. I t may recur
i n paroxysms very like angina pectoris, in one of which the
* Guy's ETospitaE Reports, POI. xlir.

5
patient may die. Dreschfeld reports * the case of a woman,

aged forty-nine years, who, when younger, had been hys-
terical, and later very neurasthenic. Suddenly, one night
she was seized with severe dyspnea, without any cardiac pain.
A week later she had a second attack, again without pain, and
in a third attack, the following night, she died. There was
a fibrous myocarditis at apex of left ventricle, and the left
coronary artery was greatly narrowed by an atheromatous
plate.
Cheyne-stokes breathing is met with in the intervals be-
tween very severe attacks, as in Cases XXIII and XXXII,
or is one of the manifestations of an advanced arterio-sclerosis,
as in Cases V, XI, and XIII.
(c) The term respiratory form of angina pectoris has been
applied to cases of cardiac asthma, such as the one reported
by Dreschfeld. I think the term more appropriate to that
interesting group of cases in which the subjects of chronic
pulmonary or pleural disease have agonizing paroxysms of
pain about the heart, evidently of the nature of angina, and
which may prove fatal.
Let me mention several illustrative cases:
CASE 1X.-On February 12, 1891, I was consulted by a

healthy, vigorous-looking man, aged thirty-three years, who
complained of shortness of breath and attacks of agonizing
pain in the chest.
I n 1876 he had pleurisy on the right side, for which he was
tapped repeatedly. The effusion becoming purulent, opened
spontaneously, and the fistula took a long time t o heal. He
gradually got strong and well, and remained so for nearly ten
years. In 1887 he began t o have attacks of shortness of breath
at night, with pain in the chest. At first there was no short-
ness of breath during the day except on active exertion. I n
*Practitioner, vol. xliv.

the year 1888 the attacks recurred at intervals. I n 1889 and

1890 he was very much incapacitated by them, as there was
great pain and shortness of breath on attempting any extra exer-
tion. The attacks came on with a feeling of great oppression
in the chest and a sense of overpowering constriction and un-
easiness in the region of the heart. The pains never extended
down the arms, but they passed up the neck to the head. Of
Iate they have recurred at night with great regularity, so that
he dreads to go to bed. He goes to sleep quietly, dreams a
good deal, but always, prior to waking in pain, there is great
excitement in the dreams, and he feels pressure on the eyeballs
and forehead, which gradually increases until it awakes him.
Then he arouses in terrible agony in both the chest and head,
and the sweat pours from him. The paroxysm lasts from five
to ten minutes, and he has often had to take chloroform. Dur-
ing these nocturnal attacks there is no shortness of breath, only
the agonizing pain in the region of the heart and passing up
the neck to the head.
On examination the patient showed an extreme grade of
contraction of the right side, with lateral curvature of the spine,
flattening in the mammary and axillary regions, with scarring
in the seventh, eighth, and ninth spaces, where the empyema
had perforated. On percussion there was flatness everywhere
over this side; the left side was hyperresonant. The apex-beat
was not visible; the heart impulse could be felt with moderate
force at the lower sternum. The heart sounds were perfectly
clear and quite natural. The pulse was regular; the vessels
were not sclerosed. There was no tracheal tugging, and the
manubrium was clear on percussion. On rapid exertion the face
became a little flushed, but no murmur developed over the
heart. The urine was clear. The abdomen was distended, the
right costal border was curiously everted from contraction of
the chest, and the liver was drawn up very far. A short time
after his visit to me the patient died suddenly in a paroxysm.
The following case illustrates a much less severe form:

A clergyman, aged forty-four years, came under my care
April 20, 1892, with signs of local disease at the apex of the
right lung. IIe was a vigorous, wiry looking man, mho had
had tuberculosis for several years; but the feature which inca-
pacitated him for work was the occurrence during excitement,
and especially when preaching, of attacks of indescribable dis-
tress about the heart, which on several occasions almost caused
him to faint. It was not a sharp pain, and there was no radia-
tion, but he described it as a feeling as though the heart would
burst or break, and an entire impossibility to proceed with his
sermon, or with his address. It was not accompanied with any
shortness of breath, and though the signs of tuberculosis and
of some compensatory emphysema mere quite marked, yet it was
this special symptom for which he sought relief, as by it he was
incapacitated. The apex-beat was not visible. The heart
sounds were clear; there was no sign of hypertrophy, and the
aortic second sound was not accentuated. The arteries were
sclerotic, and the pulse tension was considerably increased.
The condition which this patient described, though prob-

ably not true angina, is of interest in connection with this
subject. Public speakers and others who have to address
audiences not infrequently complain of a peculiar sensation
in the region of the heart, sometimes only an exaggeration
of the ordinary embarrassment which so many of us feel, but
in other instances there may be, with an increased peripheral
vaso-motor contraction, quite evident in the pallor of the face,
a summation of cardiac distress which becomes almost un-
bearable. I know of one professional frignd who rarely can
get up to speak in a meeting without considerable cardiac
pain.
Cases of chronic pleurisy, tuberculous or otherwise, are
very apt to have severe angina-like attacks. I have called
your attention i n the wards to Mary C., aged twenty-four
years, with chronic bilateral Pleurisy, who came under our
care first in December, 1890, with an effusion on the right
side. She has had lately severe attacks of pain i n and about
the heart which have come paroxysmally, but have never had
the intensity of true angina. I saw this winter a woman,
aged thirty-six years, who had had a pleurisy on the right
side of thirteen years’ duration, with chronic disease of both
apices, and considerable enlargement of the heart. She had
had shortness of breath, and occasional pain about the heart
on exertion. She died in an attack of acute dilatation of the
heart, associated with a great deal of substernal pain, much
pallor, and sweating.
GAsmo-IwrEsrmAL SnwroMs.--Nausea not infrequently
accompanies the attack, and th‘e patient may vomit. Heber-
den notes that (‘persons who have persevered in walking till
the pain has returned four or five times have then sometimes
vomited.” As an attack ends the patient may belch quanti-
ties of gas, or pass flatus from the bowel, both with apparently
great relief.
Flatulency was regarded by Butter as (‘the most obvious
and the most regular exciting cause.” Parry, too, laid great
stress on the influence of eructations in mitigating the pains
produced by “ mal-organization of the large vessels,” and
quotes Morgagni to the effect that the vulgar, and even the
physicians, thought the disease originated in the flatulency.
There is another important relation of the gastro-intestinal
features of angina pectoris. When the pain is situated in the
scrobiculus cordis, and associated with eructations and dys-
pepsia, the diagnosis of gastralgia may be made. There are
several very interesting papers on this question in the litera-
ture. Leared * described a series of cases of “ disguised dis-
ease of the heart ” in which the ‘(heart affection was so
strangely masked by that of the stomach that nothing in the
statements of the patients had any bearing on the primary
* Hedicol Times and ffazette, 1867, i.

disease.” I n several of his cases sudden death followed.

Barii5 * has written an elaborate paper on the cardio-pul-
monary features of gastro-hepatic disorders. The attacks of
pain in some of his cases simulated closely angina. Huchard
has a special section on what he called thepseudo-gasbralgic
form of angina.
I n only two cases in my series were the gastric symptoms
of such intensity that the affection was at first thought to be
in the stomach.
In Case XIX the pains were at first altogether in the upper
part of the abdomen, and as they were of sufficient intensity
to cause vomiting she was thought to have gastralgia. It
was not until dyspnea came on, and the pains became centred
about the heart and extended to the neck and arm, that the
diagnosis of angina was made.
I n the following case the patient, a most intelligent man,
insisted that the entire trouble was in his stomach.
CASE XXVII.-Mr. W., a merchant froin North Carolina,

was referred to me by Dr. Whitehead, October 26, 1893, com-
plaining of severe attacks of pain in the abdomen and lower
part of the chest. IIe was sixty-seven years of age, and of ex-
cellent family history. All his life he had had occasional at-
tacks of indigestion.
On the 17th of June, 1893, after helping a servant to carry
a heavy trunk upstairs, he felt a sensation at the pit of the
stomach as if he had wrenched himself badly. A few days later,
while walking up a hill, the sensation of pain in the stomach
returned, and a week later, while walking fast t o catch a train,
he had very sewre pain and shortness of breath. The taking
of food apparently made no difference to the pain, but he had a
good deal of belching of wind, and he insisted upon regarding
the condition as altogether due to his stomach. Dr. White-
head, in describing the case, stated that the pain began in the
* Revue de d d e c i n e , 1883.
epigastrium and passed directly to the backbone; if very severe,
it spread over the thorax; “ asthma comes on; there is tingling
sensation in the left hand, and violent pains are felt in the arms.
The agony is simply terrific.’’ I-Ie never had any nausea or
vomiting in the attacks. The patient was a very well preserved
man; the radials were firm, tension was increased, and the
radial pulse was anastomotic. There was no excessive cardiac
impulse, the area of dullness was not increased, but the sub-
cutaneous fat was very excessive. With the exception of a
soft apex systolic murmur, auscultation gave no indications.
The second sound over the aortic region was of medium in-
tensity. The examination of the abdominal organs was nega-
tive. There was no dilatation of the stomach and the gastric
juice was normal. The note which I made with reference to
the nature of the case at the time was as follows: “ Though the
possibility has been entertained that Mr. W. has gastralgia, due
either to ulcer or cancer, it seems to me much more likely that he
has angina pectoris.” He was ordered iodide of potassium;
and throughout the winter of 1893-’94 he did very well, and
he could walk a distance of two or three blocks without suffer-
ing pain.
On July 2,, 1894, after eating a much heartier dinner than
usual, he went out to pay a visit, and on leaving the door of
the house fell forward on the verandah and died in a few
moments.
Another by no means uncommon and often very distress-

ing symptom is persistent hiccough.
A symptom described by some writers has been the con-
stant desire to urinate-urina spastica-and there may be a
very large amount of urine passed. Griffiths and Massey”
profess to have separated a special leucomaine from the urine
passed during the attack.
NERVOUS AND PSYCHICAL SYmToMs.-The mental anguish
has been described. A sense of faintness almost invariably
* Comptes rendus, Acad. des sciences, 1895, 1128.

accompanies severe attacks, and actual loss of consciousness,

syncope, may follow, upon which feature I have already
dwelt. There are interesting psychical manifestations in
angina pectoris upon which you will not find much in the
literature. They are features of the myocarditis, rather than
of the angina, and develop with the progressive weakness of
the heart. I n Case V the patient had delusions of a most
painful nature for nearly six weeks, during which time he
had an exceedingly feeble heart, with gallop rhythm. H e re-
covered and lived for three years. In Case VI11 the patient
thought that he was in a strange house and begged constantly
to be taken to his home. You remember that in Case XXXII
there were occasional delusions.
Trousseau believed that there was a close relationship
between angina pectoris and epilepsy: " I n some cases, and
perhaps in a pretty good number of instances according to
my experience, angina pectoris is an expression of this cruel
and fearful complaint, and is a variety of the vertiginous
form of the disease-in other words, it is an epileptiform
neuralgia. I t s invasion is as sudden, its progress as rapid,
and its disappearance as sudden, and, as I have already told
you, it is not of very uncommon occurrence to find persons
who have in'former years suffered from angina pectoris be-
come subject afterward to epileptic fits, just m in other in-
stances angina pectoris has been preceded by well-marked
epileptiform seizures." * Quite recently Richardson f has
urged that angina pectoris is a special disease, of a paroxysmal
nature, as distinct as epilepsy and partaking in many ways
of its features-a sort of epileptic counterpart in the sym-
pathetic system. The two diseases may co-exist. W e have
to distinguish between the attacks of nervous palpitation with
* CZinical Medicine. New Sydenham Society edition, vol. i, p. 662.
t Asclepiad, vol. xi.
cardialgia in epileptics, not infrequent symptoms, and attacks
of true angina. The only instance of combination of the two
disorders which I have met is the following:
CASE 111.-An engraver, aged forty-eight years, was ad-

mitted under my care to the University Hospital, Philadelphia.
Be had served in the army during the war of secession, and en-
tered the navy as a marine in 1871. After a blow on the side
of the head, in the latter part of 1873, he was insane for several
months and required constant watching. H e recovered, but
has had ever since, at intervals, epileptic attacks, and he has
frequently been picked up unconscious on the street. For the
past four years he has had also violent pains in the chest with
choking sensation, difficulty in swallowing, and shooting pains
down the left arm. He does not lose consciousness during these
attacks, but they are evidently of terrible severity, and he feels
in each one as if he were about t o die. He has a well-marked
aura preceding the epileptic fit, which starts in the lower part
of the chest, but he is not aware of any close association be-
tween the epilepsy and the attacks of angina. The patient
was in a very bad condiiion on admission, almost pnlseless at
the wrist, but after the administration of whisky and digitalis
he revived, and in a few days seemed quite himself again. He
had hypertrophy of the heart, with aortic insufficiency.
There was in the wards last J u n e (1895) a colored man,

aged thirty-four years, who had remarkable attacks of pain
about the heart with unconsciousness. He was a healthy-
looking fellow; the pulse was not slow, the tension was in-
creased, and the radials felt a little hard. The heart was not
enlarged; the. aortic second sound was a little accentuated.
The urine was normal. H e had probably had syphilis. Eight
years ago he began to have pains about the heart, and from
July to September the attacks were so severe that he was un-
able to work. I n December they returned, and ever since,
at intervals, he has been subject to them. Any extra exertion,
such as walking fast up hill, or mental excitement will cause

severe pain, exactly under the left nipple, often of great
severity. I n March of this year, while working in a stable,
he felt a sudden agonizing pain in the heart, became giddy,
and fell to the floor unconscious. H e did not bite his tongue,
and, so far as we know, he did not work ') the muscles or
((
foam at the mouth. On June 17th he had a second attack,

with very much more pain about the heart, which lasted for
five or ten minutes before he became unconscious. On the
24th he was walking on the street, felt a severe pain and great
oppression about the heart, and then fell unconscious and was
brought to the hospital by the police patrol. The loss of con-
sciousness lasted several hours. H e had no attacks while i n
the ward, and it seemed impossible to determine precisely the
nature of the case-whether the so-called cardiac epilepsy, or
an anomalous type of angina pectoris. Newton" has re-
ported an interesting case in which very probably both the
epilepsy and the angina were associated with syphilis.
* dledical Record, 1893, i.

LECTURE IV.
ALLIED AND ASSOCIATED CONDITIONS.
I. Syncope anginosa.-11. The Adams-Stokes syndrome.-111. Angina sine

dolore.-IV. Cardiac asthma.
I WISH to call your attention in this lecture to several in-

teresting conditions closely allied to true angina which may
either develop in the course of an attack or which occur spon-
taneously in the subjects of heart disease or arterio-sclerosis.
I. Syncope anginosa.--You remember that Parry called
angina sipcope anginosa, and this feature of faiatness may
detain us for a few moments. The distinguished old Bath
physician, from whose monograph I have so often quoted,
says: ‘‘ The angina pectoris is a mere case of syncope or faint-
ing, differing from the common syncope only in being pre-
ceded by an unusual degree of pain in the region of the heart.”
This is too strong a statement, as in a majority of the parox-
ysms, though the pallor and other vaso-motor phenomena of
afclint may be present, consciousness, unhappily for the poor
victim, is not lost. I n looking over the histories of my cases
I do not find f a i n t i n g , as we usually understand the term, to
have been a common symptom. There is, of course, the syn-
cope of a fatal paroxysm-S. ZetaZis, as Quain terms it. Dur-
ing a severe attack the patient may lose consciousness. Mr. S.,
Case XXVI, was once picked up on the street. I n Case
XXV, mentioned in connection with angina and epilepsy,
we could not determine the nature of the attacks of loss
67
of consciousness. Another feature of which I have no illus-

trative example is thus referred to by Broadbent: * A pa-
tient who has ceased to suffer with attacks of angina may ((
have attacks of what he calls faintness, in one of which he

ultimately dies. These which have lost the title to the name
angina have an equally serious significance.” And, lastly,
an individual subject all his life to fainting spells may present
remarkable attacks of the nature of Gairdner’s angina pec-
toris sine dolore, about which I shall speak shortly.
CASE XXX1V.-T. J. J., aged sixty-one years, seen with

Dr. King, May 11, 1895, complaining of curious attacks which
occur on the street while walking.
The patient has been a very vigorous, healthy man, has
never had syphilis, and has been abstemious. He has had two
attacks of sciatica in the past ten years, the last, a severe one,
two years ago; he has had no joint affections. He has had an
exceptionally healthy life. From boyhood, however, he has
been liable to faint on very trifling provocation, such as a vomit-
ing attack, a slight shock, the sight of blood, or the extraction
of a tooth. From any of these causes he would drop instantly
in a faint. He has not had a spell of this kind for more than
two years. 13s present attacks date from eighteen months ago.
The first one occurred when walking from the Union Station
to North Avenue. He had a tingling feeling in the hands, and
then a sudden fainting sensation, as though he was going to die.
€€e had no pain. The attack passed off in a few moments. He
took the street car and then walked to his home, having a sec-
ond attack on the way. Subsequently he had these attacks at
intervals, always when walking on the street.
On November 22, 1894, he had two very severe attacks, and
he then consulted Dr. King. I n every instance they have come
on while he is walking. He does not think that going up hill
or walking against the wind makes any difference. He has never
had an attack at his place of business or in his home, and he
* British Xedical Journal, 1891, i, 747.

SYNCOPE ANGINOSA. 69
is able to go up three or four flights of stairs quickly and readily

without the slightest embarrassment. They come on with
abruptness, begin now every time with a feeling of numbness
and tingling in fingers and hands, which sometimes extends up
the arms, and which is not more on one side than the other.
Ile has never vomited in an attack; there is no cough, and there
is no dyspncea. He turns of an ashen-gray color, sweats pro-
fusely, and feels in each one as though he would sink away
and die. It is this sensation of impending dissolution which
has alarmed him so much. He has never had the slightest sen-
sation of pain. During an attack he is not immobile, but he
has to move slowly. The day before yesterday, for example, he
had an attack before he reached his house, and was able to get
up the steps into the porch and close the door; but he had
then to sit down, and he was found there by his son in a con-
dition of exhaustion and sweating profusely.
He was a healthy-looking man, with iron-gray hair and
moustache; no, arcus; the pupils were normal. He was not
stout, but well nourished. The pulse was 72 and regular, the
vessel wall not specially sclerotic, and the pulse could be com-
pressed readily.
There was a slight throbbing in the vessels of the neck.
The venules were marked along the course of the diaphragm.
On auscultation there was a short, sharp, somewhat rough mur-
mur heard only in the apex region and as far as the mid-axilla.
The apex beat was not visible, but was palpable in the normal
situation, in the fifth space' just below the nipple. The heart
impulse was felt also below the ensiform cartilage; there was
no thrill. The dullness began on the fourth costal cartilage
and did not extend beyond the nipple line. The percussion on
the manubrium was clear. The aortic second sound was not
accentuated. Both sounds were clear in the vessels of the
neck; the second was a little loud at the sternal notch.
The lungs were clear. Posture made no difference in the
heart sounds or in the apex murmur.
The liver was not enlarged; spleen not enlarged.
After dressing, and in the erect posture, the pulse was 88 a
minute.
June 14, 1895. I heard of this patient to-day. He has

had no attacks for a month.
May 29, 1896. The patient was seen to-day. He had a
~,cvereattack in April of this year, one of the worst he has ever
had. After a hearty dinner he was attacked in the street. There
was no shortness of breath, but an “ all-gone ” feeling, as though
he were going to expire, but there was no pain with it; sweat
“rolled off” him. He was well that evening. He has had in
the year about eight mild attacks. He had an attack yesterday.
They occur nearly always after meals.
11.-The Adams-Stokes Syndrome.-There is a most in-

teresting group of symptoms associated with myocardial
changes, and sometimes with angina, to which Robert Adams,
of Dublin, first called attention, and which Stokes subse-
quently described more fully. Most of the text-books refer
to a pseudo-apoplexy in connection with fatty or fibrous myo-
carditis, a condition in which with a permanently slow pulse
the patient has transient vertigo, or falls into a deep coma,
with or without convulsive movements. Huchard has given
it the name maladie d’Adams or Stokes-Adams. As it is al-
ways pleasant and profitable to have the author’s first-hand
description of any symptom or disease, I will give you an
abstract of the case recorded in the Dublin Roospital Reports,
vol. iv. Adams, I may remind you, was one of that distin-
guished band of men, including Cheyne, Colles, R. W. Smith,
Graves, Stokes, and Corrigan, who gave such renown to the
Dublin school in the first half of this century. H e is best
known through his superb work on rheumatoid arthritis.
Adams’s patient was a man, aged sixty-eight years, who had
had in seven years not less than twenty apopleptic attacks,
each of which was preceded for a few days by hebetude and
loss of memory. The pulse was permanently slow, and at the
time of the attacks became dower. There was never any
ADAMS-STOKES SYNDROME. 71
paralysis. Death followed an attack. Post mortem, the
heart was found to be excessively fatty. There was no note
about the coronary arteries. R. W. Smith* also noted the
condition of very slow pulse with fatty heart, and Stokes de-
scribed it more fully,+ and suggested the name false or pseudo-
apoplexy. H e laid stress on the syncopal character of the at-
tacks, their frequency, the absence of paralysis, and the good
effect of a stimulant rather than a depleting plan of treat-
ment. The first case which he gives is very remarkable, and
is worthy of a brief abstract, as recent Anglo-American au-
thors have not dwelt specially upon his symptom-group: A
man, aged sixty-eight years, was suddenly seized with a faint-
ing fit, which recurred several times in the day. For the
three years before he was admitted to the Meath Hospital
he had never been free from the attacks for any length of
time, and had had at least fifty such seizures. A sudden exer-
tion or a distended stomach was most apt to cause an attack.
IIe had no convulsions, nor was there ever anything like pa-
ralysis. H e was perfectly insensible for four or five minutes.
The pulse was 28 per minute, and the arteries were “ i n a
state of permanent distention, the temporal arteries ramify-
ing under the scalp, just as they are seen in a well-injected
subject.” There was a soft bruit with the first sound. The
threatenings of attacks he could recognize, and he had often
warded off a seizure by turning on his hands and knees and
keeping the head low.
I n passing I may remark that you will find in this paper
Stokes’s original description of the Cheyne-stokes breathing,
which, though fuller, is not a whit better than Cheyne’s ac-
count published thirty years before.
* Dublin Journal, ix.

t Observations on some Cases of Permanently Slow Pulse. Dublin
Quarterly Journal, 1846,p. 73.
Permanent slowness of the heart action and vertigo or

syncope are the two distinguishing features of this syndrome.
Do not forget that slowness of heart’s action is the special fea-
ture, not simply a diminished number of pulse beats at the
wrist. In myocarditis, in mitral-valve disease, and as an
effect of digitalis the radial pulse may appear very slow-35
to 40 per minute-while the heart beats are exactly double.
I n the bigeminal type of heart beat the second pulse wave
very often does not reach the wrist, and may lead a novice
into the serious error of supposing that there is an extreme
bradycardia. I n “ Adams’s disease” the pulse rate may
fall to 30 or 20 per minute, or, in extreme cases, even to 10
or 5.
The patients are usually advanced in years, and show
often an extreme grade of arterio-sclerosis, the arteries feel-
ing, as Stokes remarked, both full and hard.
The cerebral symptoms are those to which naturally chief
attention has been paid. Vertigo is the most common, and
is usually transient and oft repeated. Actual syncope of
three or four minutes’ duration, resembling closely the syn-
cope afiginosa, and doubtless of the same nature, has been the
special feature in some cases; while in others the attack has
been apoplectoid in its character, of longer duration, and has
been complicated by convulsions. Huchard regards the slow
pulse as a result of changes in the vagi centres, due to disease
of the arteries of the medulla. H e calls this form of arterio-
sclerosis the cardio-butbar. Transient disturbances in the
cerebral circulation, so common in the subjects of advanced
arterio-sclerosis, are responsible for the syncope and the apo-
plectoid attacks, which remind one of the temporary hemi-
plegias or monoplegias, the aphasias, and the transient para-
plegias, to which these patients are subject.
Typical cases are not common. The most remarkable
STOKES-ADAMS SYNDROME. 73
instance recorded in this country is by Prentiss,* of Wash-
ington. A man, aged fifty-three years, with advanced arterio-
sclerosis, had for two years a pulse range of from 11to 40 per
minute. During this time he was subject to innumerable
fainting spells, and had sensations of tightness across his
chest. Before his death-which took place suddenly-he
was delirious for several days. The heart was enlarged, but
neither the aorta nor the coronary arteries were atheromatous.
The sections of the medulla showed congestion of the ves-
sels, but no apparent lesions. Dr. Prentiss presented this re-
markable case at our meetings, and I remember very distinct-
ly the advanced sclerosis of the arteries.
The following case belongs to this Adams-Stokes type,
but the patient has, in addition to the vertigo and slow pulse,
a sense of severe oppression in the chest, suggestive at least
of a n oncoming angina:
J. W., aged forty-six years, seen with Dr. Houston, of Troy,
N. Y., February 13, 1895. The family history is good. With
the exception of typhoid fever twenty years ago, he has always
been well and strong. He has never had rheumatism, chorea, or
syphilis; he has never worked very hard with his muscles. He
is temperate.
His present symptoms began about two years ago with un-
easy sensations in the chest on walking fast. At first not a t all
severe, within the past six months they have become very dis-
tressing. He has not been able to lie flat on his back, but can
lie comfortably on either side with the head a little raised. He
has no sharp pain in the chest, but uneasy sensations and a
feeling of suffocation. He never has any cramplike or agoniz-
ing feeling; he has had at intervals severe vertigo, but has
never lost consciousness. The unpleasant sensations in the chest
are particularly apt to be present in the morning. H e has had
* Transactions of The Association of American Physicians, vols. iv, v,

and vi.
6
no dyspepsia, but of late has become very nervous about him-

self. He has to walk slowly, and on going up the slightest in-
cline he feels the sense of oppression in the chest. He has no
cough, no palpitation. About a year ago it was noticed that
his pulse was very slow, and in the early morning it has on sev-
eral occasions been counted as low as 20 per minute.
The patient was a healthy-looking man, with iron-gray hair;

there was no arcus; the pulse was 34 to the minute; the ten-
sion was plus, the upstroke a little labored, and the pulse wave
was well sustained. The chest was large; the cardiac impulse
was not visible; there were no areas of abnormal pulsation;
the aorta was not palpable in the sternal notch; there was no
increase in the area of dullness; no apparent hypertrophy;
no shock at the base; no thrill.
On auscultation, the sounds in the apex region were clear;
over the body of the heart there was a roughish, systolic bruit,
heard also at the aortic cartilage, transmitted feebly t o the ves-
sels of the neck. The second aortic was heard, but was not
specially accentuated; there was no accentuation of the pul-
monary second. There was no enlargement of the liver
or spleen.
I heard from this patient in April, 1896. He has been a
great deal better. He still has the brachycardia, but the ver-
tigo is not so troublesome.
111. Angina Pectoris sine doZore.-The three elements

in an attack-the pain, the sense of anguish, and the abrupt
ending of life-may be dissociated. There may be only the
severe pain, there may be a sense of angor and oppression
without any pain-angina sine dolore-or death may Q C C U ~
without a moment’s warning.
The recognition of a group of cases in which the element
o f p a i n is subsidiary was made by Professor Gairdner. His
brief description is as follows:
ANGINA PECTORIS SINE DOLORE. 75
“Apart from what has been variously termed cardiac
asthma, dyspnea, or orthopnea, which in many cases receives
its clear explanation from the associated states either of the
pulmonary circulation or of the lungs, bronchi, and pleure,
as disclosed by physical signs, there is often an element of
subjective abnormal sensation present in cardiac diseases
which, when it is not localized through the coincidence of
pain, is a specially indefinable and indescribable sensation,
almost always felt to be such by the patient himself. I make
this remark deliberately, as the result of experience, and
well knowing that it is liable to be brought into question in
particular instances; that, in fact, a large part of what has
been described under the titles given at the commencement
of this paragraph has been inextricably confounded by sys-
tematic writers with the sensation, or group of sensations, to
which I refer. To this group of sensations, when not dis-
tinctly accompanied by local pain, I have, in various instances,
given the name of angiria; sine dolore, recognizing thereby
what I believe to be its true diagnostic and pathological sig-
nificance, and its alliance with the painful angina of Heber-
den; the pain in which, however, as we have already seen,
is an exceedingly variable element, both in degree and in
kind.” *
Let me read you the histories of several cases of this
variety :
CASE XII1.-Mr. I€., merchant, aged fifty years, who had

suffered repeatedly from attacks of gout, consulted me on Octo-
ber 21, 1592, complaining of oppression and pain in the chest,
and bronchitis. Throughout the summer he had had at times
very severe pain in the region of the heart and down the left
arm. When first seen he was anaemic, with a dilated heart and
* Reynolds’s System of Hedicime, art., Angina Pectoris.

'16 ANGIXA PECTORIS AND ALLIED STATES.
an enlarged liver. With rest and iron he did very well. I saw
him at intervals through the winter; the attacks of pain ceased,
but hc had severe cardiac asthma at night, which troubled him
very much. I subsequently saw him in several attacks which
followed the exertion of walking from the street car to my house,
in which the feature of dyspncea was subsidiary, and that of
great oppression in the chest the most important. I n these at-
tacks the color changed, he became pale, looked very distressed
and haggard, remained motionless, the forehead covered with
sweat, the hands cold, the pulse feeble and irregular. After
the attack he expressed himself as having had a feeling of in-
definable distress without actual pain. There was no dyspncea.
The attacks at night were sometimes very severe, and he dreaded
to go to sleep lest he should be roused in one. Though in the
snmmer of 1898 he had had repeated attacks of what seemed to
be true angina, yet he subsequently had only attacks of the kind
just described.
I n the spring of 1893 he became much worse; there were
signs of dilatation of the heart, with the gallop rhythm, and a
soft apex systolic murmur. He had cardiac dyspncea, as well
as attacks of severe oppression, and in one of these he turned
on his side and died suddenly.
An attack of an angina sine doolore may be the very first

indication of cardiac trouble.
An intimate friend, a man of about fifty-six years of age

(Case V), of excellent habits and great energy, while on a visit
to England, walking one Sunday afternoon with the late Dr.
IIaek Tuke up a slight acclivity, felt, as he expressed it, a sense
of intolerable distress about the heart, turned pale, vomited,
and for a few minutes could not move from the place at which
he was attacked. He recognized the serious character of the
paroxysm, and said that had there been the severe pain he
would have called it angina. The attack was the starting
point of a series of very distressing seizures, culminating in a
protracted condition of cardiac dilatation, which kept him
in his bed in Paris for several months. On his return he was
wonderfully better, took up his work, but soon had another
breakdown, beginning with attacks of angina siiza dolore. I n
one of these which I saw the pallor was extreme, the extremi-
ties were cold, a clammy perspiration bathed the forehead and
face, the pulse was extremely feeble, and I thought any moriient
that he would die. After a protracted attack of cardiac dilata-
tion, persistently feeble, irregular pulse, without any dropsy,
but with the most remarkable psychical manifestations, he re-
covered, and was able for more than three years to attend to
his duties. Then he had a sudden, more rapid breakdown,
with cardiac dilatation, and he died between three and four
years from the date of his first attack. I have already shown
you sections from the coronary arteries in his case, which were
sclerotic, and the myocardium was fibroid in places.
CASE XXX-E. H., aged fifty-four years, seen J d y 11,
1895, complaining of attacks of oppression in the chest, to
which he had been subject for five years.
The patient was a remarkably healthy-looking man, of good
color, of medium size, with iron-gray hair. Thirty years ago he
had syphilis, but was thoroughly treated at Kreuznach, and he
has had no troublesome symptoms. H e married eight or ten
years ago, and has healthy children. He has been a very heavy
smoker from his eighteenth year; ctherwise temperate; he has
never done heavy work.
Five years ago he noticed that when making any extra exer-
tion he had a sensation in the chest which compelIed him to
stop. After resting for a moment or two he could then go
on. There was no pain with it. He was smoking excessive-
ly at the time, and after stopping the tobacco the attacks be-
came less frequent; but for two years they troubled him a good
deal.
Three years ago he retired from business and spent a year
in Europe, When there he had his first severe attack. While
going home after a hearty dinner with a friend, he was seized
with a sensation in the chest, had to stop in the street, and was
taken to his hotel. Thc feeling in thc chest was as if everything
in it was being drawn togethcr and tightened, but without any
sharp pain. He was very pale, he perspired, and the attack
7s ANGINA PECTORIS AND ALLIED STATES
lasted until the night. After the attack he had great depression
of spirits.
The only other severe attack he has ever had was six weeks
ago. H e had been feeling very well, but before sitting down
to dinner an annoying circumstance developed, and while still
under the influence of the irritation he sat down and ate heartily.
Immediately after dinner he had an attack of terrible oppression
in the chest, feeling, as he expressed it, as though the life was
being squeezed out of him. The slightest movement would
increase the oppression. I n the attack absolute quiet is what
he desires. He does not even wish to be spoken to, but feels
that the mind must be at rest. The immobility is evidently a
very characteristic feature. When the sense of constriction
and drawing is upon him, he says he could not force himself
to budge an inch. I n these severe attacks the pulse becomes
very slow. The sensation is in the breast-bone in the mid-
dle.
I n describing his sensations during a conversation of at least
three quarters of an hour he did not use the word pain once,
and states expressly that it isn’t anything like pain, but an in-
describle sensation of constriction and oppression. As he says,
“ he feels as if the end of everything had come ” ; at the same
time “ h e feels so healthy that behind it, as it were, there is a
feeling that he still has a long time to live.”
I n the two severe attacks a feeling extended into the mus-
cles of the arms, not into the skin, he says, but there was a
sense of strain and soreness in them.
The small attacks, as he calls them, recur with great fre-
quency, and almost any day he has what he calls a hindrance;
and if he makes any exertion of more than usual effort he has to
stop short and wait a few moments until the sensation passes away.
This may recur two or three times, and then, if he takes it
slowly, he can subsequently walk two o r three miles without
any distress.
TWOother circumstances which will bring on an attack
are an unusually full meal and any mental worry. He never
has the attacks at night.
The pulse was 72 when he was at rest; after his running
upstairs and down, 104; the tension was not increased; the
superficial vessels were not sclerosed.
The apex-beat was only just visible in fifth interspace with-
in the nipple line. The shock of the first sound was felt, not
of the second. Area of superficial dullness was reduced by emphy-
sema. Both sounds of the heart were clear; first a little flapping
and valvular; no accentuation of aortic second sound. The ex-
amination of the heart was entirely negative. The liver was not
enlarged.
July 12th. The patient stayed in town until I could see
his condition in an attack. He had had two to-day, one quite
light in the morning. He walked into the room somewhat
deliberately, talked clearly and well, and had not changed in
color. He said he had a sense of great distress just beneath
the breast-bone. The pulse was small and hard, 103 a minute,
with distinctly increased tension. After sitting down for a
few moments his skin became moist, but he did not become
pale. I n the course of a few minutes the attack passed off with
a feeling of glow. Afterward there was a very decided change
noticeable in his pulse, which was softer and fuller, and of
decidedly lower tension.
He was advised to stop smoking, and ordered a course of
nitroglycerin. I heard from him in September and of him in
May (1896). He still has the “smaller attacks,” as he calls
them.
The attacks may alternate with those in which agonizing

pain is present, or they may entirely supplant the severer
type. Some of the milder paroxysms, indicating the begin-
ning, as it were, of the trouble, appear to be of this kind.
An iron-gray, healthy-looking man, aged sixty-f our years,

of good habits and excellent history, consulted me, May 25,
1895, about curious sensations in the chest. I n October he
noticed that when walking fast there was a peculiar sensation
about the heart, as he said, “ a n aureole, which spread up his
neck and head and went out t o the hands.” If he stopped for
a moment, the sensation would “recede like a glow ” ; if he
so ANGINA PECTORIS AND ALLIED STATES,
went on, it would culminate in a pain which would compel

him to stop. There was no sense of faintness, no dyspnea, and
he did not sweat. They have always followed exertion, and
he has had as many as four or five attacks in a day. His arteries
were a little stiff, but the aortic second sound was not accentu-
ated. The top of the pinna of the left ear was calcified. He
had never had gout. I heard from this patient on February
Gth of this year. The attacks continue, though less frequent
-only two or three a week. They are characterized by the same
spreading glow, beginning at the heart, and lately the curious
sensation has passed down the right arm alone.
IV. Cardiac Asthma.--Heberden insisted that in the

paroxysm of true angina there was no shortness of breath,
and yet we find a few y e a n after his description the term
asthma applied to the condition : Asthma doZort$cum (Dar-
win), A. arthriticurn (Schmidt), A . convubivum (Elsner).
In reading the reports of the cases published within the
first half century after Heberden’s paper, it is very evident
that much confusion existed, and nearly cll forms of cardiac
distress were termed angina. Desportes emphasized this on
the title-page of his monograph (1811) on angina, which he
said wm a malady “presque toujours confondue avec asth-
ma.” The earliest and the latest, as it is the most urgent,
symptom in heart disease is dyspncea, which the older writers
characterized as asthma; and as it forms a common feature
i n cases of angina pectoris it is not surprising that more or
less confusion prevailed. Even Stokes does not seem to have
had a very clear conception of the distinctions between these
states, since he says that the disease which ‘(most often gets
the name of angina pectoris might be more properly desig-
nated as cardiac asthma.”
What, then, is this condition? Go into the wards and ask
the patients with valvular disease of the heart as to the very
;first symptom of their trouble. With scarcely an exception
CARDIAC ASTERIA. 81
they will answer, " Shortness of breath." Take a long series
of histories of cases of arterio-sclerosis; you meet with the
same complaint at the very outset. To the burly, obese dray-
men, to the heavy workers and the hard drinkers, and particu-
larly if in addition they have been victims of the pox, Nemesis
pays her first visit in an attack of shortness of breath-the
first indication of 6roTcen compensation in an enlarged
heart.
Clinically, we meet with various grades of intensity in
this cardiac asthma. An exertion, the ascent of a pair of
stairs, which may call forth only a fraction of the reserve
force of a normal heart, may be too much for a right ventricle
(in a case of mitral stenosis), or for a left ventricle (in a case
of aortic insufficiency), and at the head of the stairs the pa-
tient pants, and is perhaps a little cyanosed. In chronic val-
vular disease such symptoms may recur on extra exertion
for years without much significance; when the cardiac dysp-
n e a develops spontaneously, without extra ezertion, the
breakdown is not far off; and in the slow, too often watery
progress to the grave no other symptom is so distressing to the
patient. I n cases of advanced arterio-sclerosis there are often
attacks of dyspnea of great intensity recurring in paroxysms,
often nocturnal. The patient goes to bed feeling quite well,
and in the early morning hours wakes in an attack which,
in its abruptness of onset and general features, resembles
asthma. There is usually a sensation of przcordial distress,
a feeling of constriction and oppression, what the Germans
call Beklemmang. Two other features about this form of
attack will attract your attention-the evident effort in the
breathing and the presence of a wheezing in the bronchial
tubes and of moist rides at the bases of the lungs. The pa-
tient may spring from the bed and throw open the window in
his terrible air-hunger,and he assumes an attitude most favor-
able to the working of all the accessory muscles of respiration.

Slight cyanosis is usually present, and in severe paroxysms
a cold sweat breaks out in the face and limbs. The pulse
is feeble, often irregular, and very small, and on auscultation
one hears either gallop rhythm or the f a t a l type of heart
beat. Death may occur in the attack, as in Dreschfeld’s case,
the history of which I gave you in Lecture 111. This form
of cardiac asthma occurs with great frequency in some of the
subjects of angina pectoris, as in Cases V and XII.
And, lastly, the type of breathing known as Cheyne-
Stokes is sometimes a form of cardiac asthma, and it is not
uncommon in angina pectoris. The curious pause in his respi-
ration of which John Hunter spoke was probably a period
of apnea in a paroxysm of Cheyne-stokes breathing. It was
first described by Cheyne in a case of fatty heart, and you
will find it more frequently associated with chronic myocar-
ditis than with any other form of heart diseme.
The following case presents features of Gairdner’s angina
sim dolore, with characteristic cardiac asthma :
Mr. X., aged sixty-seven, seen March 9, 1895, with Dr. Clari-
bel Cone, complaining of attacks of terrible oppression in the
chest and a sense of impending death.
The patient was a very large-framed, well-nourished, vigor-
ous-looking man. He had been always a very active business
man, temperate, but a heavy smoker; he began in his eighteenth
year, and has used as many as eight cigars a day,
For several years he has occasionally been roused from his
sleep with a feeling of oppression in the chest, but it has never
been very severe. For the past two or three weeks he has been
very short of breath, and has had paroxysms of great oppression
in the chest, with dyspnea, feebleness of the circulation, cold,
clammy sweat, and a sense of impending dissolution. During
these attacks there is no actual pain. Mental excitement or
muscular exertion will bring on the oppression and dyspnea.
He came today, however, in the street car, and walked half
CARDIAC ASTHMA. 83
a block without much difficulty. During the examination he
had well-marked Cheyne-Stokcs respiration.
The pulse was 104, of moderate tension, easily obliterated;
the vessel wall was a little stiff. The apex-beat was feeble, just
at the mamillary line; there was no shock of either sound to be
felt; there was gallop rhythm at the apex, but no murmur. The
second aortic sound was a little accentuated. The liver was not
enlarged.
At 11 P. M. on the 9th the patient had a very severe attack
of terrible oppression in the breath, with drenching cold sweat
which soaked the clothing. During the attack the pulse was
104 and regular. The Cheyne-stokes breathing became ag-
gravated during the attack.
I n this patient the attacks were more than ordinary car-
diac dyspnea. I n addition to a sensation of awful oppression
in the chest, there was a sense of impending death, and the cold,
clammy skin showed profound involvement of the vaso-motor
system.
For several weeks this patient seemed very ill. There were
two interesting points in his treatment. The digitalis seemed
to have helped him very much when the pulse tension was low;
subsequently he got a great deal of relief from the full doses of
nitroglycerin. Through the winter of 1895-’96 he remained
pretty well, though subject to occasional attacks.
I can not leave this question of cardiac dyspnea, of equal

importance pathologically and clinically, without referring
briefly to certain recent works upon it. A. Fraenkel, in the
third edition of the BeaLEncyclopadie, under Asthma, has
a full and clear statement of the condition. Rosenbach’s
I€erzkrankheite.n has the most exhaustive discussion on the
whole subject, full of suggestive ideas, but not easy reading,
apparently not even to his countrymen, as Professor Martius
speaks of the Lehrbuch as “ in einer etwas dunklen Sprache
geschriebene.” The essence of Rosenbach’s views on the
relations of cardiac asthma and angina may be gathered from
the following sentence (page 37’7): “ Dass nur eine Verande-

rung in der Art der Dhkelcontraction, die die Starke der
Muskelleistung durchaus nicht zu beeinflussen braucht, wohl
nber beeinflussen kann, Impulse fur die sensiblen Bahnen
liefert, die je nach der Erregbarkeit derselben und der Be-
schaffenheit der betroffenen Bahnen, die verschiedenen
Formen von Schmerz und Angst ausliisen, die wir als Steno-
cardie bezeichnen, wahrend die Veranderung im lfuskel die
zur Leistungsschwiche fiihren, das Hauptsymptom des Asth-
ma cardiacum, den wahren Luhthunger hervorruft.” Or, as
he says in mother place, “ d i e wahre Stenocardie ist ein
blosses Zeichen der Regulationsstijrung, das Asthma cardia-
cum ein Zeichen der Compensationsstijrung.”
Von Basch and his pupils * have endeavored to show that
whenever, either from spasm or weakness of the left ventricle,
the blood pressure in the auricle is raised, cardiac dyspnea
follows in associaticn with two important changes in the lungs,
viz., swelling and diminished elasticity = Zun yenschwellung
und Lungenstarrheit. The swelling, which,may even be de-
termined by percussion, results directly from the overdis-
tention of the capillary network in the air cells, and to the
same cause von Basch attributes the lessened elasticity. The
ratio between the respiratory work and the intake of air is
reduced; and, as Zerner remarks (Studien, Bd. iii), the pe-
culiarity of cardiac dyspnea is in tliis respiratory insufficiency,
not in the rapidity and depth of the breathing. The “ex-
cursionsfahigkeit” of the lungs is lessened, and the amount
of air inspired is not proportionate to the work done. Fraen-
kel also refers to the influence of the venous engorgement
of the mucous membrane of the finer bronchioles as limit-
ing the freedom of ingress and egress of the air to the alveoli.
* Klinische und experirnentelle Studien, i, ii, and iii, particularly Bd.

iii, 1896.
CARDIAC ASTHMA. 85
When we recall to mind the features of the attack in
cardiac asthma and in certain anginal seizures, the similarity
of the condition, as Huchard remarks, to an acute emphy-
sema, the views of von Basch appear to possess at least a
reasonable probability.
LECTURE V.
PSEUDO-ANGINA PECTORIS.
I. Neurotic group : (a) Hysterical and neurasthenic cases; @) Angina, pec-

toria vaso-motoria; (e) Reflex angina.-11. Toxic angina: forms of heart
pain from tobacco.
AN angina notha, false angina, was first described, so fax

as I can ascertain, by J. Latham in a paper (1812) on certain
symptoms " usually, but not always, denoting angina pec-
toris." According to Huchard, the term pseudo-angina was
introduced by Lartigue in 1846. Walshe called attention
particularly to this condition, stating that " genuine angina
pectoris is undoubtedly a very rare affection. On the other
hand, I almost daily meet with a form of complaint combin-
ing, in a minor degree, many of the characters of angina;
and to this imitation of the true disease I propose to give the
name of pseudo-angina. I believe that herein lies the ex-
planation of Laennec's notion (so discordant with the experi-
ence of English observers) that angina pectoris is of very fre-
quent occurrence." The term which has come into general
use, and is of no little value, has not passed without criticism.
Balfour (The Senile Ihart) says: " The term ' pseudo-an-
gina' is often applied to anginous pains occurring before
middle life, especially in the female sex, and yet we see that
fatal angina may occur in one who is still but a girl. To talk
of pseudo-angina is, however, a mark of ignorance rather
than of refinement of diagnosis: for angina is but a symptom,
86
PSEUDO-ANGINA PECTORIS. 87
and if well marked, it should no more be stigmatized as

‘pseudo,’ because it occurs in youth, than the lesion with
which it is sometimes associated should be called functional
because it happens to be curable.” And yet, not two pages
off, he says: “ B u t in what we may term-for want of a
better expression-false angina, we have only to deal with
the pain, the danger of which depends upon its cause,” and
in reality he subsequently acknowledges the wisdom of
Walshe’s division.
Burney Yeo says: ((I do not admit a pseudo-angina of
some authors. Hysterical imitative anginas, however, cer-
tainly occur. B u t ... there is simply a gradation of se-
verity and curability between the so-called eases of pseudo-
angina and those of true angina.”
Morison, too, in a recent paper,* questions the correct-
ness of the term: “ A case of true angina is one in which
there is no doubt about the angina, and there is no mistake
about the reality of the pain or breast-pang in many so-called
functional cases.” ‘(The idea of spurious angina is only per-
missible in so far as the angina is not associated with demon-
strable lesion,” and tends to get well. Herein lies the essence
of the whole matter-the symptoms, on the one hand, indi-
cate the existencd of a grave organic, usually incurable
malady, and on the other, a condition very distressing, it is
true, but rarely serious, and usually curable. The advantages
in thus recognizing a functional group far outweigh any
theoretical objections, and in a series of cases the forms are,
with few exceptions, fairly well defined.
I have notes of some twenty cases of pseudo-angina pec-
toris, cases in which there were recurring paroxysms of severe,
even agonizing cardiac pain, often with radiation. The ab-
* Edinburgh Hospital Reports, vol. iii.

88' ANGINA PECTORIS AND ALLIED STATES.
sence of the mental element-angor mimi-and the exist-

ence of collateral features, aetiological or symptomatic, served
to separate them from the forms I have previously consid-
ered. I have only taken cases in which the seizures were
paroxysmal and intense; if one counted all the slight car-
diac disturbances in hysterical and neurasthenic patients as
pseudo-angina, the list could be greatly extended.
At the outset let me emphasize three points of special
significance :
Pi&. Pseudo-angina is an afection of women. You re-
member that in the series of organic or coronary angina there
was only one woman-a mitral-valve case-the only instance
of true angina that I have seen in a female. Of the twenty
cases of pseudo-angina, twelve were in women. I f we ex-
clude two cases of tobacco angina, there were only six in-
stances in males. I n my series it was much more common in
married women; there were only two girls, each aged twenty-
two. W e can say then that pseudo-angina is almost as much
a special disorder of women as true angina is of men.
Xecond. It occurs in y o u n g e r persons. The average age
of the subjects of spurious angina is much lower than in the
other f orm-thirty-eight years in my series, the extremes
being twenty-two and sixty years, the latter a woman who
had had attacks for twenty or more years.
Third. The patients do not die. While fifteen of the
slxbjects of true angina on my list are dead, every one of the
twenty patients with pseudo-angina is alive; of several of
the cases of true angina I have lost track.
Two main groups of functional angina may be recognized
-the neurotic and the toxic.
I. NmnoTIo.-The cases in this group present a good
many minor differences, either in the characters of the attack,
or in the circumstances which favor its onset; and, based
upon these, various subdivisions have been made. A majority

of the patients are either hysterical or neurasthenic, or the
features of the attack are of themselves distinctive of hysteria,
I n others the vaso-motor phenomena are specially marked,
while in a third set of cases the attacks appear to be excited
reflexly, either by peripheral or visceral irritation.
(a) Hysterical and Neurusthenic Cuses.-At the risk of
wearying you, I will read the histories of a series of cases,
from which you will get an idea of the varied features of the
attacks. I n every one of the first three cases the existence
of genuine angina had been suspected, greatly to the distress
of the patient or the relative. I n the fourth the attacks
were so anomalous that the presence of a tumor in the medi-
astinum was thought possible. A n apprehension lest the true
nature of the case should be overlooked is, naturally enough,
the feeling uppermost in the mind of the attending physi-
cians, whom to convince of the hopeful nature of the com-
plaint I have sometimes found very difficult.
CASE I.-Mrs. X., aged thirty-eight years, consulted me on

January 9, 1894, complaining of attacks of agonizing pain in
the chest.
Her father died at sixty-seven years, of cancer of the stom-
ach; her mother, of nephritis, at the same age. There are no
nervous affections in the family.
At the age of six she had rheumatic fever, and at twenty-
one rheumatic sciatica, which has returned once or twice, but
not within the past ten years. She has been married sixteen
years and has two children. Until about six years ago she was
subject a t times to fainting fits, which would come on without
any definite cause. She had them almost from her childhood,
and I can not get either from herself or from her husband any ac-
curate information as to her behavior in these attacks, which
are apparently quite transient, and not associated with con-
vulsive movement, nor does she apparently always lose con-
7
sciousness. She is a woman of a good dcal of character and de-

termination, and of executive skill, and does not give one the
impression of being of a neurotic habit. She has always been
able to do a grcat deal of walking and has not suffered specially
with shortness of breath. Five years ago she had an attack of
appendicitis, from which she recovered without operation. I n
the spring of 1893, when returning from Colorado, and after
a good deal of mental worry, she had an attack of very severe
pain in the chest. It came on after exertion and exposure to
the wind in walking. The pain was of terrible severity, ex-
tended up the neck and down the arms; but she was able to
move about in it and was a good deal excited. Since that at-
tack she has been, at intervals, a little short of breath on exer-
tion. She has had two of the severe attacks since; one last sum-
mer at the seaside, when walking on the sand, the other two
months ago. Both of these were of great severity; the pain
was agonizing; she became gray and cold and exhausted, and
the skin was covered with a clammy perspiration. She states,
too, that she had a sensation as though she could not live
through it. One of these attacks was followed by a transient
facial paralysis. Last August, for the first time in her life, she
began to have headaches, which have recurred as often as two
or three times a week. They are of the type of migraine, and
come on with disturbance of vision; she sometimes sees figures
and queer things; once she had hemianopia. The attacks pros-
trate her very much.
About the middle of December her feet and ankles began to
swell, particularly at night. At first there was little or no
pitting, but now they are sometimes swollen to the knees. The
urine has been normal in quantity and without albumin o r tube
casts.
The patient was a well-nourished, healthy-looking woman;
pulse 80, regular, without increase in tension, and the vessel
was not sclerosed. The thyroid gland was not enlarged, and
there was no puffiness of the face or above the clavicles. The
feet and ankles at the time of examination were not edematous.
The examination of the heart and other organs was entirely
negative.
A hopeful prognosis was given in the case, based on the

view that the attacks, though severe, were probably pseudo-
angina. The occurrence of migraine, with which pseudo-
anginal attacks may alternate, and the swelling of the feet
without evidence of heart or renal disease, were corroborative
features. I have heard of this case several times; she got
better, and the painful heart attacks, when I last saw her
husband, six months ago, had not recurred.
C ~ S EII.-Mrs. F. R., aged forty-two years, seen April 9,

1894, complaining of attacks of agonizing pain in the chest.
The patient comes of a very nervous family, and one sister
is in a lunatic asylum.
She was well and strong until two years ago; she has had
five children, the youngest six years old. She has never had
any special illnesses. She was not specially nervous as a young
girl, and had no crying spells or hysterical attacks. Her domes-
tic relations are congenial and satisfactory.
The present trouble began two years ago last February, when
one morning she had an attack of severe pain in the chest. It
began in the pit of the stomach, became most intense under the
left breast, and extended round the shoulder. As she expressed
it, she thought death had come. She got cold, broke out into
a profuse perspiration, and during the attack was completely
helpless. The attack lasted for about an hour and left her much
prostrated. During the succeeding year she had about four at-
tacks, each of great severity and identical in character. I n the
past year they have become more frequent; thus, she has had
two in the past month. The last attack was on the 1st of April.
She felt comfortable in the morning when she got up, but after
breakfast felt a little drowsy and heavy, and lay down on the
sofa. The attack came with the greatest rapidity and was so
severe that she could not rise. The breath gets short; she feels
a sensation of deathly coldness about the heart, and the chief
pain is under the left breast. She can not move about, and when
the pain is at its height she can not bear to be touched. As
it comes on she loosens her clothing, but as the attack increases
in severity she is quite beside herself, tosses about, and is, as

she says, almost dead. She groans a great deal, and in some
of them has cried out very loudly. Her husband, who is a
traveller, has only seen her in two attacks, both of which came on
with great suddenness. She got very cold, the face became
pinched and drawn, at first a little congested, and then pale.
Twice she vomited in the aitack. The duration has been from
a quarter of an hour t o an hour. She has had to have morphine
hypodermically on several occasions. After they pass away she
feels miserable and is wretched f o r two or three days. Some-
times the whole body is sore after an attack.
She knew of no spccial circumstance apt to induce an at-
tack. She was low-spirited at times and noticed that shc has
been a little despondent prior to their onset. She has not been
short of breath on going upstairs or uphill; not more than
might be expected in a stout woman. Exertion has never
brought on the attack.
The patient was a large, stout, healthy-looking woman.
There was no arcus; the color was good; the tongue clean;
the temporal arteries not sclerosed; pulse 84, readily com-
pressed; the vessel wall was not sclerosed. There was slight
throbbing in the vessels of the neck. Percussion was clear on
manubrium. The cardiac dullness began on the fourth rib.
At first right interspace there was a soft systolic murmur, and
the aortic second sound was here a little accentuated. The first
sound was loud and clear upon sternum; there was no murmur
at the apex. There was no pain on firm pressure over manu-
brium o r adjacent parts.
The soft bruit at the aortic area, and the accentuation

of the second sound, made me a little suspicious of this case,
though the general features of the attack were rather those
of pseudo-angina. The subsequent history, as obtained from
Dr. G. W. Norris and from her husband, on October 27, 1804,
and July 7, 1805, shows that she steadily improved and the
attacks have now ceased.
r
CASE 111.-Mrs. B., aged thirty-three years, seen with Dr.
Smith, of Havre-de-Grace, February 14, 1835, complaining of
attacks of pain about the heart and shortness of breath.
Her mother died of apoplexy at sixty; her father had a
hemiplegic attack two years ago.
The patient was healthy as a child. At her seventeenth
year had nervous prostration with headaches. She has never
had any fevers, and has not had chorea or rheumatism. She
has been married for twelve years; has had three children; the
youngest is between three and four years of age.
The symptoms of which she now complains began about
two years and a half ago. During her last pregnancy she had
acute nephritis, but after delivery the dropsy disappeared rapid-
ly. Within about six months she began to have attacks of pal-
pitation and pains about the heart. These are very apt to come
on five or six days bcfore the menstrual period. She has two
grades of attacks: I n the severer type she gets very cold in the
hands and feet. The heart begins to throb; she has choking
sensations in the neck, and a sense of pain and oppression in
the region of the heart. The pains do not extend to the arms.
The face gets flushed, sometimes very much congested. She
becomes very nervous, and the pain is so intense that she re-
quires morphine. The attacks come on at any time, but exer-
cise, heavy work of any sort, and worry, have seemed the most
common exciting causes. I n the milder attacks she has a little
shortness of breath, the face becomes flushed, and there is a
sense of oppression about the heart. They often pass off if she
takes a hot drink or a dose of Hoffman’s anodyne; she has
never fainted. She has no dyspepsia, nor does she think that
anything she eats ever brings on an attack. She has been ex-
ceedingly nervous and worried about her condition, particular-
ly since a physician told her a year ago that she was liable to
die suddenly. Up to a year ago she weighed only a hundred
and fifteen pounds; she has rapidly increased in weight to a
hundred and forty-three pounds. She was a healthy-looking
woman of a florid complexion. She did not look of a nervous
temperament. The pulse was good, 100 a minute, without in-
creased tension; the arteries were not sclerotic. The condi-
tion of the heart was negative, the aortic second sound was ring-
ing and accentuated. The pupils were equal; she had no arcus
senilis.
There seemed very little doubt that this was a pseudo-

angina, and I reassured her upon the question of sudden
death. I heard of this patient on July 13th and on Decem-
ber 30th. She has not had a severe attack since February;
for a few months she had " threatening," as she calls them;
since July she has been quite well.
The following case is of interest from the intensity of the
paroxysms and the hypers&hesia of the left arm. She had
been alarmed, too, by the serious view which had been taken
of her condition:
CASE IV.-Miss C., aged twenty-two years, referred to me

September 29, 1891, by Dr. Clark, of Skancateles, complain-
ing of remarkable attacks in the region of the heart.
The family history is good, and she has herself always en-
joyed very good health. She is evidently a high-strung, nervous
girl, who has studied hard. When quite young, about the
twelfth year, she had for a time pain in the left side about the
heart and sensations of coldness.
The present complaint has persisted for between two and
three years. She describes a pain, more or less constant in the
left front of the chest, which sometimes goes down the arm,
which becomes numb. She says she is never without this pain,
and that it sometimes keeps her from sleeping. Then she had
sudden spells, in which she has a terrible sensation of spasm
in the region of the heart, as though something had grasped her.
It differs altogether from the other pain. I n severe attacks it
has lasted all night, and she has had to gasp for breath. She
does not perspire. The left arm becomes numb, often tingles,
and in severe attacks the numbness extends to the left leg. The
left arm feels almost paralyzed and is tender, and she can not
use it in the attacks. There may be headaches, but she is never
sick at the stomach. She never has any special coldness of
the extremities. She has only had four of these very severe
paroxysms within the year. During them she takes chloroform
and nitrite of amyl. They have never been brought on by exer-
tion, and she has been able t o play tennis quite actively. Ex-
citement and emotion most frequently cause them.
The patient was evidently very neurotic. She had no heart
disease, no increased tension, and n o sclerosis o f the vessels.
An interesting feature was the great sensitiveness of the left
hand and arm. She jumped at once when I touched the wrist
in order to feel the pulse. The various forms of sensation in
it were perfectly normal. Though sensitive to the touch, she
feels it numb and heavy. The sensitiveness did not extend to
the skin of the chest.
The condition had been the cause of a good deal of alarm

to her friends, and a diagnosis had been made by one of her
physicians of a tumor pressing in the region of the heart.
She was given a very favorable prognosis.
I saw this patient for a few moments about a year ago.
She had entirely recovered from her (attacks and, though
nervous, seemed very well.
Hysterical angina in the male is usually a very well-
characterized affection. The following cases are the most
typical which I have seen:
CASE V.-W. €I., seen with Dr. Purvis, of Alexandria, aged

thirty-two gears, complaining of severe attacks of pain about the
heart.
The patient comes of excellent German stock. His mother
is aliye and his brothers and sisters are well and strong; there
are no special nervous troubles in the family. Though an hotel-
keeper he has been very abstemious in the use of alcohol. He
has never had syphilis. He has been nervous from boyhood.
When about fifteen he had a fright, after which he had nervous
spells, called fits, €or several years. From his description, they
were evidently severe hysterical attacks. At the age of twenty-
three he had scarlet fever and diphtheria, and nearly lost his
life. For the past six years he has had a great deal of mental
worry, and for nearly two years a good deal of extra financial
strain. During this time he has had at intervals what he calls
nervous attacks. He would get numb in his feet and then in his
legs, and a sensation would rise in his body like a wave, mali-
ing him cold and faint.
Dr. Purvis, who has seen him in the spells, says they are evi-
dently hysterical. He does not lose consciousness.
For the past three months he has had different attacks, con-
sisting of very agonizing pain about the heart, extending to the
shoulders and down the arm even to the fingers, very frequently
only to the index finger and thumb of the left hand. They have
come on most frequently while walking. He catches his breath
and has frequently had to sit down on a doorstep. He describes
the pain as very agonizing, but he makes no mention of any
sensation like that of impending death. His hands get cold;
sometimes the feet are cold, and he has at times broken out
into a profuse perspiration. The attacks have recurred with
great frequency. H e has had as many as four in the twenty-
four hours. Worry, overexertion, and on several occasions a
iull meal, have caused attacks. They have increased rather
than diminished during the past month.
The patient was a healthy-looking, well-nourished man,
of good color, of fair physique, with black hair and eyes. The
pulse was quiet (80 a minute), tension not increased. He flushed
easily, and there was the most marked factitious urticaria and
dermatographia. The apex-beat was not visible and not palpa-
ble. The superficial cardiac dullness was not increased. The
sounds at the apex were clear. There was no accentuation of the
aortic second, and there were no murmurs. There were no
painful spots about the precordia. The patient subsequently
entered the private ward of the hospital, where he had several
attacks of the character above described.
CASE VI.-On May 23d I’ saw at the Rennert Hotel, Dr.
R., aged thirty-three years, a physician from one of the North-
ern cities, who had had a series of most severe attacks dating
from May 15th.
The patient, a man of very high-strung, nervous organiza-
tion, had had a very hard battle in life, overcoming almost in-
superable physical difficulties. His general hcalth had been
very good. He had been a w r y hard student, and had done
much work outside his ordinary professional duties. Three
years ago, while engaged in instructing a class, he felt suddenly
a terrible pain in the heart, and a numbncss extended down
the left arm and leg. He was unable to stand, but did not lose
consciousness. He recovered from this attack in the course
of an hour or so, and had no recurrence until the 15th of the
present month. At 5.30 P. M., while in a cab, he was suddenly
seized with an agonizing pain just below the left nipple. There
were numbness and tingling in the left arm and leg. That night
the pains recurred, and from his wife’s account he evidently
had a series of hysterical attacks; he became very emotional,
wept, and had remarkable delusions. The pain was of such
severity that he had to have morphine. The pulse was very
variable, and at one time became extremely rapid, above 160.
His face was flushed, not pale.
On Sunday, the lyth, he was better, and on Monday he was
all right and attended to his practice. On Tuesday, while pcr-
forming a minor operation, hc had a recurrence of the agoniz-
ing pain. He said: “Words can not describe my torture,
but I went o n and completed the operation.”
On Tuesday evening he had another severe seizure, and had
t o have morphine hypodermically, and took chloral and bromide
through the night.
On Wednesday he was in very bad condition, was nervous,
emoticnal, and quite delirious. On Thursday he was annoyed
by a cabman, and had an attack in the street, which upset him
very much, but which was not, however, followed by delirium.
Altogether, in the past eight days, he has had five or six
paroxysms of great intensity. I n the attacks his wife says he
is very restless, gets quite beside himself with the pain, and de-
mands morphine at once. He has had all sorts of delusions,
and has been in a most unnatural mental condition.
Patient was very healthy-looking, evidently very high-strung
and nervous, a man who had for years lived far too intensely,
and had worked very carelessly and with too much friction.
The physical examination was entirely negative. The pulse

was quiet, without increase in tension. The heart sounds were
clear, without accentuation of the aortic second. The vaso-
motor system was extremely labile, and the slightest scratch was
followed by an active reaction.
The persistence of pseudo-angina is sometimes very re-

markable. I n 1888 I was consulted, in Philadelphia, by an
old friend, a physician from the Province of Quebec, who
had very severe heart disease. While I was visiting him late
one evening at the Lafayette Hotel, he asked me to step
into the next room and see his wife, a woman sixty years of
age, whom I found prostrate on the bed with her hands
clasped over her heart, rocking herself from side to side, in
an agony of pain. H e r hands and feet were cold, the face
somewhat flushed, the pulse small and rapid. I could not
get an answer from her, but when I returned to the room
the doctor said not to worry (I seemed anxious about her),
that she would recover in a little while. H e assured me that
for more than thirty years she had been subject to these at-
tacks, particularly when overanxious or worried. She was a
very nervous woman, had been hysterical when young, and
though at first her husband and other physicians thought
the attacks very serious, they pasoed off so quickly, particu-
larly under the inflnence of a hot whisky punch, that he had
ceased to regard them as in any way dangerous.
(6) Vaso-motor Angina. - Vaso-motor phenomena are
rarely absent in attacks of true angina, but they are even
more pronounced in the nervous and hysterical subjects.
Xothnagel has described a special type, angina pectoris vaso-
motoria." I n the four cases (all men) the symptoms con-
sisted of peculiar sensations in the extremities or on one side
* Deutsches Archiv. f.klin. Mediein, Bd. iii, 1867.

ANGINA PECTOBIS lT;1SO-MOTORIA. 99
of the body, with coldness and soinctimes lividity of thc
hands and feet and swcating. With this there TTere palpita-
tion of the heart, terrible praxordial anxiety or pain, and
sometimes feelings of faintness. A striking feature in these
cases was the tendency of the attacks to occur in the cold,
or on mashing the hands in cold water. Nothnagel regarded
these vaso-motor phenomena as the primary features, and
the cardiac embarrassment and distress as secondary to a
widespread vaso-constrictor influence throughout the arterial
system.
A good deal of discussion has taken place upon the pro-
priety of recognizing this as a special type, and considering
the frequency of vaso-motor changes in both organic and
functional forms it does seem doubtful; and yet the cases
are wonderfully well characterized and in the most pro-
nounced degree always, I think, of the functional variety.
I n a large proportion the vaso-constrictor influences dominate,
and there is pallor with coldness. I remember but one in-
stance in which the vaso-dilator phenomena alone were
marked.
I n 1887 I saw (Case VII), in Toronto, a lady, aged thirty-

five years, stout, well nourished, the mother of five or six chil-
dren, who had been the subject, at intervals, of very puzzling
and distressing attacks. Without any special reference to the
menstrual period, and following particularly worry or excite-
ment, she Jvould experience a feeling of distress about the heart
amounting to actual pain, and the vessels of the face and of
I the extremities would become congested, and she felt cold and
numb. But much more distressing than these were the sensa-
tions of great pain in the back of the head and neck. The at-
I tacks would last for twenty-four hours or more, and were some-
times very alarming. I could not gather from her that the pains
about the heart were ever of a very agonizing character, but
they were always severe. I was asked to see her to determine
the presence or absence of a heart lesion. Both sounds seemed

perfectly clear, and there were no signs of organic disease. I
was much impressed with the neurotic condition of the patient,
and suggested hysteria. I saw the patient in an attack, evident-
ly hysterical; she was greatly prostrated, lay with the eyes
closed, quite livid in the face, and the hands and feet were pur-
plish in color and cold. She complained of great distress about
the heart and agonizing pain in the back of the head and neck.
The subsequent history has borne out the view taken of her
case. Within a year or so she got perfectly well and has re-
mained so, not having had an attack for nearly eight years.
Much more commonly there is pallor with the coldness.

I n women the attacks are apt to recur at or before the men-
strual period.
hlrs. R (Case VIII), aged forty years, consulted me in

1890 about attacks of severe pain in the region of the heart,
which had recurred at intervals for eight years, since the birth
of her last child. They were particularly liable to come on dur-
ing the menstrual period, or whenever she was subject to any
special mental strain or worry. The pains were very severe, im-
mediately under the left breast, and passed up the neck and
down the left arm. She did not flush with them, but, on the
contrary, got pale and felt very cold, particularly in the hands
and feet, which sometimes sweated. The pains were not con-
tinuous, but recurred at intervals extending over a period of
several days. Diet, she thinks, had no special influence. She
slept badly and dreamed a great deal. The patient was a stout,
well-nourished woman of good color; the pulse was regular,
about SO; the arteries were not sclerotic. There was no heart
disease.
I n women, as you will have noticed in the reports I have

read, the features of coldness of the extremities with numb-
ness and pallor are very common. I n men this type may occur
in a most marked degree, and the diagnosis may be for some
time in doubt.
ANGINA PECTORIS VASO-MOTORIA. 101
CASE 1X.-A. B., aged forty-two years, seen December 30,
1895, complaining of paroxysmal attacks of terrible intensity,
characterized by a feeling of suspended animation, as though
the breath had left the body; at the same time the hands and
feet get cold, and there is a sensation of stricture about the
root of the neck.
The patient, who occupies a prominent position of trust,
looks a healthy, vigorous man. His family history is excel-
lent.
As a young man he was very well. He has never had syphi-
lis; is a moderate drinker, and has used tobacco freely. Seven
gears ago, following a period in which he was very much oyer-
worked, he first had the attacks, which recurred for nearly
eighteen months. At that time they caused him great alaim,
but with the exception of two, they were not very severe. The
present attacks date from just two months ago. He has been
in his usual health, and knows of no special cause why they
should have come on. A majority of the paroxysms have oc-
curred at night, just as he was beginning to doze to sleep. He
has had them also on the street, and seven years ago in one he
had slight vertigo, and had to sit down on some steps, and he
felt as he sat upon them as though they were rising and falling.
The attacks may come on while he is sitting at his desk, or while
he is reading quietly in his chair. Exercise is very apt to bring
them on, and if he runs for a car or hurries upstairs he is apt
either to have a severe attack or to experience a chilly feeling
and the sensation which he constantly speaks of as though his
breath had all left him.
The sensations which he describes in the attack are very
curious. He lays special stress on the feeling that the respira-
tion had ceased, and it gives him some relief to draw several
deep breaths. With this is associated a sense of great stricture
about the lower part of the neck, and a terrible sensation about
the heart, as though it was his last minute. He feels. strangely
in the head, and thinks he has a very wild look. The face be-
comes pale, the hands and feet get cold as ice, and become very
clammy with perspiration, and in several attacks he has had a
feeling of numbness in the legs from the knees down. He lays
very great stress upon the sensation of coldness in the arms

and legs, and says that on one occasion he took a warm bath,
and even though the water mas quite hot he still had a feeling
of great coldness and numbness in his legs. I n one attack the
face and neck became very red and congested, and the nose bled
profusely. There is invariably palpitation of the heart, and he
has been told by his doctor that the pulse at the wrist becomes
scarcely pcrceptiblc. I n a paroxysm, seven gears ago, he thinks
he lost consciousness for a moment. I-Ie staggered and fell.
I n one attack at this time he had vertigo. As the paroxysm
passes ofE he belches a great deal of wind. I n several spells
there has been a good deal of itching of the skin, and in one
or two a marked twitching of the muscles. The duration of
the entire paroxysm varies from t\vo or three to tcn or fifteen
minutes. IIe finds that a strong drink of whisky will sometimes
cut short an attack. I n the two months since they recurred
he has had on an average about four in a week. They have not
all been severe. He has been much alarmed about them, and in
several of the attacks both he and his wife have been greatly
terrified.
Patient was a tall, well-grown, healthy-looking man. There
was no arcus senilis; the pupils reacted readily to light. The
pulse was soft and full, regular, tension low. The apex-beat
was just within the nipple line, not forcible; slight throbbing
in the vessels of tlie neck. The percussion note was everywhere
clear; there was no increase in the area of heart dullness. The
heart sounds were clear; the aortic second was not accentuated;
the breath sounds were equal on both sides; there was no dull-
ness in either interscapular region, and no bruit in the course
of the descending aorta (a diagnosis of aneurysm had been
made). The cervical glands were not enlarged. The examina-
tion of the abdominal organs was negative. The knee-jerks
were normal. There was no Romberg’s symptom, and the pupil
reflexes were active.
January 1, 1896. The patient’s wife came to-day to speak
about her husband’s condition. She says that last summer he
had a few slight attacks. She mentions several features of in-
terest, particularly the suddenness of tlie onset. For example,
he will awaken from a perfectly sound sleep in a most alarming
paroxysm, and his hands and feet will become cold; the face
is usually palc, and the heart will throb most forcibly. Within
a minute or two his hands will become as met as though they
had been dipped in water. She remembers two or three attacks
in which the face became quite congestcd and full instead of
pale. IIe is greatly terrified, and always feels that hc is going
t o die. What has reassured her always is the fact that within
ten or twelve minutes, sometimes less, he is laughing and talk-
ing, quite free from pain. She does not think that he has been
a very nervous man, and he has not had any special worries.
April I, 1896. For the past two months this patient has
been very much better, and, as he tells me, has almost recovered
from his attacks.
June 1st. He has not had an attack for nearly four months.
(e) I2eJex Angina-And lastly, in addition to the purely

hysterical and vaso-motor fornis, there are cases in which
the angina appears to be excited reflexly, either from pe-
ripheral or visceral irritation. You will find an interesting
chapter in Huchard devoted to these reflex pseudo-anginas,
and he has collected a number of cases from the literature.
There are instances of anginous attack following a cervico-
brachial neuralgia, of either traumatic or spontaneous origin.
You remember in the histories of the cases of true angina
how insistent many patients were as to the influence of diet.
There is also a so-called gastro-intestinal form of pseudo-an-
gina, in which attacks follow indigestion. The following is
the only instance in my list in which the visceral irritation
appeared to induce the paroxysms, or, to speak more cor-
rectly, in which the two conditions were associated:
CASE XI1.-Miss R., aged twenty-two years, seen ApPil 4,

1893, complaining of severe attacks of pain in the region of the
heart.
She belongs to a nervous family, and she has never been
104 ANGINA PECTORIS AND ALLIED STATES,
very strong. She denies having had hysteria. Several times,

as a child, she had slight rheumatism, and three years ago she
was laid up with a more acute attack. Several members of her
family have also had it. For years she has been subject to dys-
pepsia, particularly after eating too many sweet things. For a
year or more she has had occasional attacks of pain in the chest,
coming on particularly when she has indigestion. The pains
are neuralgic in character, chiefly about the lower part of the
chest, yet sometimes, to use her own expression, " they fly all
over her." Lately she has been much alarmed by the occur-
rence of two attacks of great severity, the first about two months
ago and the second a month ago. There was agonizing pain
in the region of the heart with shortness of breath. Both were
severe enough to require hypodermic injections of morphine.
The pain, so far as she could localize it, was in the left
side, in the region of the heart, not in the abdomen. On both
occasions, though the severity of the pain was only, as
she said, for an hour or so, yet €or two or three days after
she had more or less pain and distress. On both occasions
she had dyspepsia, but she had not been specially nervous
or run down. She does not know whether she got pale dur-
ing the attacks, but she sweated after them. She takes a great
deal of exercise, but has never had an attack brought on by
exertion.
She looked a nervous girl and flushed easily. The examina-
tion was negative, with the exception of slight dilatation of the
stomach.
11. TOXIC ANGINA.-The second division of functional or

pseudo-angina embraces cases due to the abuse of tea, coffee,
and tobacco, substances harmless in themselves, but which
if taken in excess may disturb the action of the heart. My
experience with this form is extremely limited. I n tea or
coffee drinkers I have never seen attacks of cardiac pain which
could be called angina; though paroxysms of severe palpitation,
with distress about the heart and gasping respiration, are not
uncommon in nervous women much addicted to tea. Tobacco,
TOXIC ANGINA PECTORIS. 105
as a rule, produces only slight and transient disturbame of the
heart’s action, but which may culminate in attacks of angina.
When one considers how universal is the custom, the infre-
quency of severe heart symptoms in users of tobacco is re-
markable. I pass months without seeing, i n hospital or con-
sultation work, an instance in which symptoms of any kind
are due to it.
You all know, some of you have experienced, the acute
toxic symptoms in beginning to use tobacco. The effects of
the habitual use are very varied. To the large majority of
persons the habit, in moderation, is harmless, to many it is
beneficial. Among the injurious features those relating to
the heart are perhaps the most important, certainly they are
the most common. There are three groups of cases of so-called
tobacco heart :
1. The Irritable Heart of Smokers.-Palpitation, irregu-
larity, and rapid heart action are very common symptoms,
particularly in young boys. They are often combined with
dyspepsia; pain is not a special feature. There may be slight
enlargement of the heart. It is a condition readily relieved
by stopping the use of the weed. Disturbance of rhythm is
the most constant effect of tobacco, and intermittence is more
common than either slowing or hastening of the heart’s action.
Weakening of the vagus control is the more frequent, though
in my own case the slightest excess in the use of tobacco
causes intermission with slowing, not increase of the pulse-
rate. A n opposite eff ect-great rapidity with feebleness
of impulse-is more common, and may develop suddenly in
an habitual smoker.
2. Heart Pain.-Sharp shooting pains about the heart are
not very uncommon in persons who smoke or chew too much.
They may occur alone without disturbance of the cardiac
rhythm or without the intensity and associated features of
8
an attack of tobacco angina. The following is a good illus-

trative case :
I. B., aged twenty-nine years, seen March 24, 1896, com-

plaining of pain in the region of the heart just below the nipple.
The first attack was four o r five years ago, and it has recurred
at intervals ever since. Shortly after the onset his physician
suggested that it might be due to tobacco; and when he gave
up smoking the attacks disappeared altogether. Since he re-
sumed the habit they have recurred, and for the past year he has
had them more frequently. The attacks occur at night, just
after he has fallen asleep. He is aw6kened with a severe pain
in the region of the heart, which almost takes his breath away,
and makes him cry out at once. It rarely lasts more than a
minute or two. The heart's action is not increased. He never
has had any sweating and does not change in color, nor do his
hands and feet become cold. He has never had any pain down
the arm. It is always of the same character, sharp and stab-
bing, just below the nipple, and is intense enough to cause him
to cry out. He has had as many as four or six attacks in the
twenty-four hours. I n the daytime the pain is not so severe,
and the spells are more transient. He has never had an attack
folloming exertion, and neither emotion nor errors in diet have
any influence upon them.
He was a member of a very nervous family. E e was himself
a healthy, vigorous man. He had smoked from his boyhood
three or four strong cigars, and when traveling, five or six
cigars a day. He felt himself that the tobacco was responsible
for the pain. IIe was a healthy-looking man, a little pale. The
pulse was 5'6, regular, and without increased tension. The apcx-
beat was in normal situation; the heart sounds mere everywhere
clear. The second aortic was perhaps a little accentuated.
There was no pain on pressure, and no hypermthesia.
He was advised to stop smoking altogether.
3. To6acco Aagifia.-I have seen but two cases in which

the severe paroxysms of cardiac pain appeared to be due to
the abuse of tobacco.
Dr. -, of -, aged thirty-five years, consulted me April
13, 1891, complaining of severe pains in his chest and of numb-
ness in the left arm. The patient has a very gouty history on
both sides. IIc has been a hard-working practitioner, has been
a moderate drinker, and has used tobacco t o excess, both smok-
ing and chewing. Four years ago, when he had been smoking
very heavily, he had an attack of pain about the heart and
down the arm, for which he consulted Dr. Pepper. H e had
very little trouble again until six or seven months ago, when
the attacks recurred. He then consulted Dr. DaCosta, mho
said that he r a s gouty and without organic disease of the heart.
Lately the attacks have been very severe, chiefly under the left
margin of the sternum and reaching down the arm, which be-
comes numb and tingles. He has never had an attack in which
there was a sense of impending dissolution. The patient was
a healthy-looking man; the pulse was 78, the tension a little
plus, but there was no sclerosis of the arteries. The examina-
tion was negative, with the exception that the aortic second
sound was perhaps a little sharper and clearer than normal.
H e mas told that he had no heart disease, and he was urged to
live a temperate life, to give up tobacco, and ordered ten grains
of iodide of potassium three times a day. After seeing him the
first day I dictated the following note:
“ I n this case the gouty history and the accentuated second
sound Ere perhaps suggestive of true angina. On the other

hand he has been a very heavy smoker, is evidently nervous
and worried about his condition, both of which factors must
be taken into consideration.”
I have seen this patient at intervals during the past five

years. I I e lays very great stress upon tobacco as the cause of
the attacks, and any indulgence is apt to be followed by severe
pain. On February 17, 1894, in a letter he laid stress again
upon the part played by tobacco; in a letter received recently
he gives a very satisfactory account of himself, though he still
smokes, and still has attacks. There is a feature in this case
upon which Huchard lays a great deal of stress in tobacco an-
gina-namely, the occurrence of certain nocturnal spells al-

most like syncope. The patient states in the recent letter that
“ the strangest symptom of all is that just as I lose myself, and
am about to drop to sleep, and often just after losing conscious-

ness, I choke, sit up quickly, and feel for the moment as if ‘ the
game was up.’ There is no pain, no excitement of the heart,
and yet this often occurs after having a choking fullness and
distention in my throat, as if I was trying to force a great
volume through a small space.” I I e adds, “ Sudden inhala-
tions of tobacco smoke still give me pain about the heart, last-
ing for several minutes.”
T. W., aged forty-five years, seen with Dr. Goldsborough

June 12, 1895.
The patient was a very vigorous, healthy-looking man, and
has enjoyed uniformly good health. I n November, 1894, he
had influenza and was wretched f o r two months after it. He
liad been a heavy smoker since his fourteenth year. Some years
ago he gave LIP the habit for twelve months, as he had attacks
in bed in which he €elt as though the heart had stopped and he
would have to jump out of bed and gasp for breath. He got
well and has smoked heavily ever since.
On the 6th of January he had a sudden, severe paroxysm,
to which he attributes his present nervous condition. He had
been smoking on an average twelve strong cigars a day. The
attack began with a peculiar feeling in the chest, not exactly
pain, but great distress. He turned pale, belched gas con-
stantly, perspired, was cold, could not lie down, and felt as
though he was going t o die. He had no agonizing pain, but he
felt a sense of terrible oppression, and had numbness in both
hands and wrists. The heart’s action during this attack was
scarcely perceptible, the pulse very feeble and fluttering. It
lasted altogether two or three hours, and alarmed him very
much. For several days afterward he felt prostrated and weak,
and for a month he had a sort of faint feeling, particularly
after eating. These faint attacks have distressed him very much.
They would come on at intervals and he would turn pale and
s w a t profusely. H e never has aetnally fainted in them, but one
day in the barber‘s chair he very nearly lost consciousness.
They recurred for about two months after his severe attack.
He has been very nervous and uneasy about himself, and has
been greatly worried. He has stopped tobacco since Janu-
ary 6th.
The patient mas a robust-looking man of good color. There
was no arteriosclerosis. The apex-beat was within the nipple
line, visible, readily felt, of normal intensity. There was no
increase in the cardiac dullness. The heart sounds were clear,
and there was no accentuation of aortic second. There was no
enlargement of either liver or spleen,
Up to April 17, 1S96, when last heard from, this patient
had had no return of the attacks, and had been quite well.
As my experience of this form has been so limited, I will

read you Huchard’s statements as to the chief characters of
tobacco angina ;
1. “Angina pectoris due to tobacco assumes often the
vaso-motor type (extreme pallor of the face with vertigo, con-
traction of the pulse, tendency to syncope, praxordial anx-
iety with or without pain, chilling of the extremities, cold
sweats) .
2. The attack of angina is often associated with other
((
manifestations of nicotine poisoning: vertigo, ringing in the

ears, dysphagia, headache, a sense of suffocation and dysp-
n e a (nicotine asthma), sensations of general weakness, of
cerebral confusion, of spinal hyperzsthesia, troubles of vision,
etc. These symptoms may be dissociated from the paroxysms
and observed separately.
3. “Those suffering from tobacco angina show, almost
always, apart from or during the course of their attacks,
disturbances in the heart’s function : slowing with enfeeble-
ment of the heart’s beat, tachycardia or bradycardia, inter-
missions, arrhythmia, palpitation, tendency toward lipothy-
.
mia or syncope, attacks of palpitation with extreme irregu-

larity of the heart (folie cardiaque, delirium c o ~ d i s ) .
4. “ T h e attacks of angina are often very painful and
complete in their intensity and in the radiation of the pains.
B u t it is in angina from tobacco that one sees particularly the
imperfect and abortive forms, consisting of dyspnea with
slight praxordial anxiety, or simply of a little sense of uneasi-
ness behind the sternum, with the sensation of stopping of
the heart and the fear of impending death.
5. “ Angina from tobacco shows generally spontaneous
paroxysms; they may also be produced by exercise or exer-
tion. I t has then the clinical characters of angina from
coronary artery disease.
6. (‘The paroxysms of func8ionaZ tobacco angina due to
spasmodic contractions of the coronaries disappear rapidly
after the complete stopping of tobacco, a clinical feature
common to almost all the symptoms of tobacco poisoning
without lesions.
7. ‘‘ This is not true of the paroxysms of organic tobacco
angina due to organic contraction of the coronaries (through
nicotine arterio-sclerosis). This form is more resistant; it
disappears but slowly, or may be permanent; it is worthy
of treatment with iodide of potassium.
8. “There exists another form of stenocardia, the most
benign of all; it is due remotely but not immediately to nico-
tine; it follows dyspepsia produced by the abuse of tobacco;
it is cured by the removal of tobacco and the disappearance
of the dyspepsia.”
LECTURE VI.
THEORIES O F ANCINA.
The importance of coronary artery disease.-Intermittent claudication.-

State of the heart muscle in an attack.-Seat and cause of the pain.-
Vaso-motor changes in angina.-Relations of spurious and true angina.
CORONARY ARTERYDISEASEAND ANGmA.-It would be

impossible to discuss, even briefly, all of the theories which,
from time to time, have been offered in explanation of this
remarkable group of symptoms. Huchard has tabulated
1 sixty-one opinions under six main theories! Under these cir-
cumstances it will be wise to start out with the statement of
a generally accepted fact-viz., that in an immense propor-
tion of all cases angina pectoris vera i s associated with disease
of the coronary arteries m d o f the myocardium. This, you
will recall, was Jenner’s original suggestion, which he
enounced in the letter I read to you in Lecture I. Very
shortly after the appearance of Heberden’s paper the first
reports of coronary-artery disease i n angina were made by
Fothergill-the great Fothergill, whose friendship with Rush
and whose interest in the medical affairs of the American
colonies endeared his name to the profession on this side of
the Atlantic. I n the first case which he reports there is no
note upon the coronary arteries, but ‘ I on the outward mus-
cular part (of the heart) near the apex was a small white spot
as big as a sixpence, resembling a ~icatrix,’~ evidently a patch
of fibroid myocarditis. I n another case (which seems really
111
to have been one of angina sine dolore) the patient, who had
a difficulty or incapacity to walk up a moderate ascent, died
i n a sudden transport of anger. John Hunter, who made the
dissection, found “ the two coronary arteries, from their ori-
gin to many of their raniifications upon the heart, were be-
come one piece of bone.” * The older reports, which cor-
roborated the opinion of Jenner, are to be found in Parry’s
monograph; while the full statistics on the question have
been collected with great pains by Huchard. I n a supple-
mentary chapter to his work you will find a summary of 145
autopsies in cases of angina, gathered from the literature.
I n 17 cases there was mention only of a lesion of the coro-
naries without further specification; of 128 there were 68
with lesions of both coronary arteries, 37 of the left vessel,
1 5 of the right, and in 1 2 the seat of the lesion was not stated.
I n the 128 cases obliteration or stenosis of the vessels had
occurred, and of these in 1 2 1 there was atheromatous nar-
rowing or thrombosis, in 5 embolism, and in 2 compression.
Fatal cases are on record in which the coronary arteries have
been found normal; most of these are instances of adherent
pericardium or valvular disease. There are also fatal cases
of tobacco and post-febrile angina in which the anatomical
condition is statcd to have been negative. Nothing is easier
than to overlook myocardial changes, particularly in the oldcr
methods of examination, and a heart may present extensive
fibroid disease with obliteration of arteries, which to the un-
trained eye looks healthy, or which may not show any coarse
lesions of the aorta, or of the main branches of the coronary
vessels. Or again, Rrehl’s method of serial section may show
extensive myocarditis, with changes in the smaller arteries,
in a heart apparently normal. Spasm of the coronary arteries
* Medical Observations and Inquiries, vol. v, 1774.

THEORY OF INTERMITTENT CLAUDICATION. 113
has been invoked to explain the sudden death in these cases,

but it is much more likely that changes of a serious nature
were overlooked (as from personal experience I know they
often are) in the ordinary methods of examination. Ischzemia,
a condition in which the heart muscle is imperfectly supplied
with blood, is the main factor in all coronary lesions, whether
narrowing of the orifices of the arteries, atheroma of their
walls, or thrombosis or embolism of their channels.
I n seeking to explain the relation of the arterial and myo-
cardial changes to the symptoms of angina we pass at once
into the region of speculation. On turning to the thera-
peutical indexes and finding a list of twenty or more drugs
recommended in a given disease you may be quite safe in
concluding that our knowledge of the treatment of the affec-
tion is, to say the least, imperfect; and so, when you read the
tabular list of the theories of angina, covering nearly four
pages of Huchard’s Trait&,you may feel assured that the last
word has not yet been said upon the subject.
THEORYOF INTERMITTENT CLAUDICATION.-The View
which is based most directly on the coronary-artery disease is
one which, as I shall tell you, dates really from the early part
of the century, and finds its explanation in the remarkable
phenomenon known as ifitemzittent claudication. Bouley,*
Sr., the celebrated French veterinarian, described an aff ec-
tion in the horse, in which, after being driven for fifteen or
twenty minutes, the animal stops, the hind legs get stiff, and
soon it is unable to stir. It may fall down, and apparently
be in great suffering. I n from half an hour to an hour it
will recover and will go on comfortably for another fifteen
minutes, and then an attack recurs. In such cases, post mor-
tern, the artery of the affected limb has been found blocked
* Nouaeau dictionnaire pratique de rnddecine, de chirurgie et d’hygi8n.e

v6tdrinaires. Tome deuxiAme, p . 540. Bouley and Benault, 1856.
with a clot, or, when both hind legs have been involved, the
abdominal aorta has contained a thrombus.
Charcot, while an interne in the service of Rayer, de-
scribed in man a condition corresponding to this intermittent
claudication in the horse. H e says * that one day a patient
i n the service told him that he mas not able to walk for more
than a quarter of an hour without being taken with cramps
i n the legs. After resting a while he would get better, and
tvould be able to resume his walking, and then a crisis re-
curred. A t the autopsy Charcot found a ball encysted in the
neighborhood of the iliac artery, and a traumatic aneurysm
which had obliterated the artery in its lower part. The cir-
culation was carried 011 by collateral channels, which were
ample to maintain the nutrition while the patient was quiet,
and for a short period during exertion, but after a time, when
the limbs were fatigued by the movements, the quantity of
blood which reached them was insufficient, causing a relative
ischzmia, with tingling, cramps, and impossibility of walk-
ing. H e refers to the fact that the condition is often pre-
liminary to gangrene, and narrates a case in which a patient
with the affection had his leg amputated for gangrene. +
The credit of pointing out the analogy between this con-
dition and angina pectoris, which is ascribed usually to Potain
(18‘70), but which is maintained by Weber $ to be due to
Brodie (1846), belongs in reality to Allan Burns, whose 06-
servations on Some o f the Most Frequent and Important B i s -
ease8 o f the B a r t (1809) is a well-known storehouse of inter-
* LeGons du Nardi. Tome i, p. 45.
f Charcot seems to have felt hurt that his communication on so remark-
able a phenomenon had not received any attention. Be says : “ J e n’ai pas
encore rencontr6, chose singulisre, car mon memoire de 1856, prEsent6 la
Societe de Biologie, n’cst pourtant pas Berit en chinois, il me parait ircrit en
franpais, presque en bon frangais, je n’ai pas rencontr6, dis-je, un seul m6de-
cin qui ait tenu compte de mes observations.”
3 American Journal of the Medical Sciences, May, 1894.
esting facts. Since, so far as I know, this distinguished writ-
er's connection with this supposed new tlieory has not been
pointed out (except in the second edition of my Pmctice),
I will read to you in full what he says on the subject: " Such
a state of the arteries of the heart [referring to atheroina]
must impair the function of that organ. It has been long
known, that although the heart is always full of blood, yet
it can not appropriate to its own wants a single particle of
fluid contained in its cavities. On the contrary, like every
other part, it has peculiar vessels set apart for its nourish-
ment. In health, when we excite the muscular system to
more energetic action than usual, we increase the circulation
in every part, so that to support this increased action the heart
and every other part has its power augmented. If, however,
we call into vigorous action a limb round which we have
with a moderate degree of tightness applied a ligature, we
find that then the member can only support its action for a
very short time, for now its siipply of energy and its expendi-
ture do not balance each other; consequently, it soon, from
a deficiency of nervous influence and arterial blood, fails and
sinks into a state of quiescence. A heart, the coronary ves-
sels of which are cartilaginous or ossified, is in nearly a similar
condition; it can, like the limb begirt with a moderately tight
ligature, discharge its functions so long as its action is mod-
erate and equal. Jncrease, however, the action of the whole
body, and along with the rest that of the heart, and you mill
soon see exemplified the truth of what has been said, with this
difference, that as there is no interruption to the action of the
cardiac nerves, the heart will be able to hold out a little longer
than the limb.
' I If a person walks fast, ascends a steep, or mounts a pair
of stairs, the circulation in a state of health is hurried, and

the heart is felt beating more frequently against the ribs than
usual. If, however, a person, with the nutrient arteries of

the heart diseased in such a way as to impede the progress of
the blood along them, attempt to do the same, he finds that
the heart is sooner fatigued than the other parts are, which
remain healthy. When, therefore, the coronary arteries are
ossified, every agent capable of increasing the action of the
heart, such as exercise, passion, and ardent spirits, must be a
source of danger.”
Burns discusses also whether the paroxysm was depend-
ent on a state resembling paralysis, or on a spasmodic con-
traction of the fibres of the heart. H e hardly thinks that the
view of spasm is corroborated by any analogous facts-in the
animal economy. I I e says: Do we ever, after the operation
((
for aneurysm, see the muscles in a state of rigid action; or,

when we apply the tourniquet only so tight as to impede the
circulation, do we ever observe that the member is affected
with spasm? I n both cases we witness an induction of an
extreme degree of debility, and we hear the person complain-
ing of an unusual painful feeling i n the limb, but still its
muscles are in a state of inactivity. I f these be the phenomena
resulting from a deficiency of arterial blood in the muscular
system in general, why should the heart be an exception?
W e know that this organ is principally composed of muscle,
and we have therefore reason to believe that it is regulated
by the same laws which govern other muscles.”
I will read you this intermittent claudication theory as
formulated by Potain, in 1870, and you will see how com-
pletely the distinguished clinician of L a Cfiarite’ has been
anticipated by the old Glasgow professor: (II f one considers
the painful sensations, the disorders of the cardiac action,
which constitute an attack of angina pectoris; if one but
remembers that these paroxysms occur always after fatiguing
movements, muscular efforts, or emotional disturbances-that
is to say, under conditions in which the heart is compelled to

contract more frequently and to do more work; if one con-
siders finally, that repeatedly some narrowing or ossification
of the coronary arteries has been found in the bodies of vic-
tims of this disease; if one considers these facts, it will ap-
pear in every way probable that the heart does not escape
from the common law, that it also becomes rapidIy exhausted
when its arteries can no longer give it the quantity of blood
necessary for its increased activity; and that then it becomes
the seat of painful disorders, just as in the case of the muscles
of the lower extremity. Herein lies a principle which may
be briefly expressed as follows: The symptoms caused by
ischaemia become exaggerated whenever the diseased organ
becomes active, because of the increased quantity of blood
which this activity demands.” *
It is easy to suppose that a narrowing of the orifices of
the coronary arteries, or of the lumen of a main branch, can
bring about conditions most favorable for the production of
this intermittent claudication-4. e., a state in which, so
long as the heart is acting quietly, sufficient blood reaches
its muscle; but if called upon to act more forcibly, by exer-
j tion or emotion, the larger supply, then needful to maintain
the nutrition, might not be forthcoming, with the result of
a relative ischzemia and disturbance of function.
What is the condition of the heart muscle in this ischE-
mia? Is it likely to be the same in the narrowing of atheroma
and in the blocking from thrombosis and embolism? How
shall we account for the remarkable disparity between the
incidence of angina pectoris-a rare aff ection-and the inci-
dence of coronary-artery disease-an everyday degeneration
in persons above the age of sixty? With what special condi-
* Quoted by Huchard.
tions is the pain associated and what relation have the pains
of pseudo-angina to those of the angina vera? What part do
vaso-motor changes play in the process? Theso are among
the questions which must be asked and answered before we
can accept the intermittent claudication or, indeed, any
other theory. TVe may discuss these points under three heads:
the state of the heart muscle, the seat and cause of the pain,
and the vaso-motor changes in the disease.
I. THESTATEOF TIIE HEART &scLE.-During an attack
the organ has been siipposed to be either in spasm, or in a
condition of paralysis, from imperfect blood supply or over-
distention. Heberden, aiid many since, have regarded the
heart in a paroxysm as in spasm or cramp; but Allan Burns,
and after him Brodie (as quoted by Weber), urge against this
view that the muscles in the condition following blocking of
arteries are not in spasm, but rather the opposite; and, while
not absolutely paralyzed, are, as Brodie says, in a state ap-
proaching to it. With this the clinical features of the attack
are in accord, for although it has been noted in exceptional
instances that the pulse beat has not been feeble or the car-
diac rhythm disturbed, the general experience is that the left
ventricle is weakened and the systemic arteries imperfectly
filled.
The condition of the heart miiscle in the attack is prob-
ably not always the same. For example, in a patient with
ten or fifteen paroxysms daily we can not suppose that any
serious organic change, as anzmic necrosis, develops in each
attack. I n such, as Allan Burns says, " the supply of energy
and expenditure do not balance each other "; " a heart with
the coronary arteries cartilaginous or ossified can discharge its
functions so long as its action is moderate and equal, but if
the circulation is hurried, the progress of the blood along the
nutrient arteries of the heart is impeded and the heart be-
THE STATE O F THE HEART MUSCLE. 119
comes fatigued.” A transient paresis from insufficient supply
of oxygenated blood (and possibly, as has been suggested,
from a sort of auto-intoxication with the products of imper-
fect metabolism) explains the cardiac weakness and the tend-
ency to syncope, but affords not the slightest clew to an ex-
planation of the main feature of the attack-the pain. Very
different to this relative ischamia of the cardiac muscle must
be the condition following the blocking of a large branch by
a thrombus or an embolus. The resulting ancemic infarct,
if at all extensive, must cause not alone great weakness of
the cardiac muscle, but at the site of the lesion the smooth
uniformity of the waves of contraction must be seriously
interrupted. This cardiomalacia may lead to rupture of the
wall of the ventricle (eleven cases in Huchard’s collection of
autopsies) or may cause pericarditis. While the anzmic in-
farct is a well-recognized lesion in fatal cases of angina pec-
toris, it must be remembered that a paroxysm of pain is really
a rare complication of this not infrequent change. I t is in-
teresting to note that the scars of infarcts have been found
years after recovery from attacks of angina. Curschmann, in
the discussion at the Congress f. innere Medicin, already re-
ferred to, mentioned two cases, one a man of seventy-five
years, the other a woman of sixty, both of whom, some twenty
years before death, had had severe attacks of angina from
which they recovered with bradycardia. There were found
old fibroid changes in the myocardium with obliteration of
branches of the left coronary arteries. W e may say, then,
that the evidence, such as it is, favors the view that the heart
muscle in the attack is in a state of paresis. This, however,
may not be general; it may be confined to the left ventricle
or to a part of its wall; but weakness in itself offers not the
slightest clew to the cause of the pain.
The view of Heberden that the heart muscle during the
attack is in a state of spasm has been supported by many

writers, notably by Latham. The existence of spasm of the
heart during life can not be inferred from the empty and
contracted condition of the left ventricle post mortem. Rela-
tive ischEmia in the territory of one coronary artery or of
its main branch, still inore an area of anzemic necrosis, might
readily bring about conditions favoring cramp, not necessarily
in the affected region (very unlikely, indeed, in an infarct),
but in contiguous muscular districts, the rhythm of whose
motion would be interrupted and disturbed. I do not know
of cramp in the voluntary muscles produced under analogous
conditions, but I may remind you of the horribly painful
cramps in the legs in the exhaustion following the prolonged
use of untrained muscles, and the cramps in the calves and
feet in chronic arterio-sclerosis. Pain, the special feature of
the angina attack, is explained by the cramp theory. The
most intense suffering which can be experienced is associated
with muscular contractions of the tubular structures, as in
intestinal, biliary, and renal colic, and i n the contractions of
the uterus in parturition. And observe that this agonizing
pain is in parts not endowed, so far as we know, with very
acute sensibility. Theoretically there is much in favor of
the idea that in the most powerful muscular organ of the
body irregular cramplike contractions, even if localized, might
be accompanied by painful sensations, which could attain
the maximum intensity present in an angina attack. But this
brings us directly to a discussion of
11. THE SEATAND CAUSEOF THE PAININ ANGINA.-
There is one inexplicable feature which baffles all suggestion,
and gives us pause in an uneasy apprehension lest we should
know even less than we suppose. I refer to the extraordinary
variability in the incidence of attacks in cardio-vascular lesions
apparently most favorable. W h y should true angina pectoris
SEAT AND CAUSE O F THE PAIN. 121
be so rare in hospital patients, and so rare in women3 There
must be some peculiar state of the nervous system, some un-
due susceptibility, as Sir Richard Quain says, which, in the
presence of certain conditions, is really the essential factor.
Like epilepsy, to which it has been compared by Trousseau,
and more recently by B. W. Richardson, we know the signs
and symptoms and can give a dull catalogue of predisposing
causes, but of the intimate cause we know nothing, and can
only formulate our knowledge in general statements, such as
have been given in the lecture upon ztiology.
The seat of the pain is undoubtedly in the heart itself.
The irradiation is a remarkable phenomenon to which we
have no other exact counterpart in visceral disease-none,
at any rate, which is so pronounced a feature. Anstie, Allen
Sturge, and others have suggested the possibility of a central
origin of the whole trouble; and I would here remind you
of the interesting observation of Eichhorst that atrophy of
the muscles of the ulnar side of the left hand may follow re-
peated attacks, which would suggest central changes in the
spinal cord. Which set of nerves in the heart is chiefly in-
volved, and what part the intrinsic ganglia play, we do not
know. It has been suggested by Sansom that the pain is due
to involvement of the sympathetic fibres, the feeling of im-
pending death to the influence of the vagi; which recalls to
mind Laennec’s opinion that when the pain was in the heart
and lungs the vagi were affected, and, when there was simply
a sense of stricture of the heart without difficulty of breath-
ing, the grand sympathetic was involved. Four possible ex-
planations of the pain may be mentioned:
(a) Cramp of the Heart Muscle.-In discussing the state
of the heart during an attack I have spoken of this view, which
has much in its favor, particularly in cases with anzemic in-
farct, but it seems scarcely applicable to all-for instance, to
9
the cases with frequently recurring attacks, in which one can

not possibly suppose infarcts to be present, though the scars,
of course, persist. The analogy with painful spasm in other
hollow organs, usually very insensitive, is also suggestive.
That Heberden and Latham-still masters in Israel-stand
sponsors for this view, and that so acute a modern obserrer
as Rosenbach, should conclude that the pain is due to
‘(changes in the form of muscular contraction,” commend it
strongly to our consideration.
(6) Distention mad Stretching of the Cardiac W a h -
Traube held * that the symptom-complex of angina pectoris
resulted from a rapidly increasing distention of the walls of
the ventricle, which, in consequence of defective nutrition,
were more yielding. When, owing to increased pressure i n
the aortic system, this distention became excessive, the nerve
elements in the heart wall became stretched and bruised,
causing the pain. You will find a very careful elaboration of
this theory by Lauder Brunton in the Practitioner, vol. xlviii.
A paragraph in a lecture by T. K. Chambers also suggests
this idea: The pain has the same tearing and paroxysmal
((
character that you find accompanying the distention of hollow

fibrous organs, usually insensitive, such as the stomach, the
colon, and the bladder. The pain is of the same nature as
that felt in overstrained tendons or muscles wearied out by
sustained effort; it appears associated with the stretching of
usually insensitive fibres, and is sometimes the most dreadful
agony the body can bear, as the inventors of racks and other
instruments of torture well knew.” Of course, this is a
possible explanation, but it raises a probIem insoluble as the
original one-why, if extreme dilatation is a cause, angina
does not occur more often. There must be surely some addi-
* ffesammelte Beitrage, Bd. iii, p. 183.
t Lectures, chiefEy Clinical, fourth edition, p. 315.
SEAT AND CAUSE O F THE PAIN. 123
tional factor, or attacks would be of everyday occurrence.

The relation of angeiospasm to the attacks will be discussed
later.
(c) That the Pain i s i n the Arteries.-Allan Burns spoke
of the pain following the tying of an artery and the applica-
tion of a tourniquet. Sensory nerve endings have been dem-
onstrated in the arterial walls, and it has been suggested fre-
quently, in recent discussions on angina pectoris, that the
main element of the attack may be vesselpuin, due to either
angeiospasm or thrombosis. There may be-there is not al-
ways-great pain in the blocking of a large vessel, artery, or
vein by a thrombus or embolus. The name phlegmasia alba
dolens emphasizes a prominent character in the plugging of
the femoral vein, and, as I have just said, the pain after liga-
tion of the femoral or the application of the tourniquet is
often very intense. Nothnagel refers also to the pain in the
I head in blocking of large cerebral vessels. I t is not unrea-
sonable to suppose that pain of the same nature may occur
in blocking of the coronary arteries, though I do not call to
mind the existence of special pain in embolism or thrombosis
of arteries of the size of the coronary vessels in other organs.
Moreover, as I have already said, we can not suppose that in
each attack a thrombus develops. Rngeiospasm is a much
more likely cause of the pain, and it may be associated in
some cases with blocking of a vessel. There are the analogous
conditions of migraine with its vascular spasm and intense
pain, and the vascular changes with pain in Raynaud’s dis-
ease. Balfonr has an interesting paragraph upon this ques-
tion of pain in the arteries:
(( That ischEmia does give rise to pain, even of the most
atrocious character, is sufficiently attested by the agony that
attends compression of an artery for aneurysm, especially at
the moment the vessel becomes completely occluded; the
124 ANGINA PECTORIS AND ALLIED STATES
pains, arising from a similar cause, that precede the appear-

ance of gangrenous patches in a limb affected with senile gan-
grene; and those which precede, accompany, and follow at-
tacks of local asphyxia (Raynaud’s disease). There is every
reason to suppose that the arterial spasm, which is so evidently
the cause of local asphyxia, and which takes so prominent a
share in the production of an attack of angina vasomotoria,
occasionally invades the heart, either as part of a general con-
dition or, it may be, as a distinctly local affection, and that
this is a very possible cause of those anginal attacks where
no other seems obvious ” (The Senile Heart).
(d) That the P a i n i s a Neuralgia, either FundionaZ or due
t o a A’euritis.-This most widely held view regards angina
pectoris as a form of neuralgia or neuritis affecting the nerves
of the heart. Huchard mentions twenty-two modifications
of this theory, which dates from the early part of the century,
when, in 1808, Baumes ranked the disease as a retrosternal
neuralgia (sternalgia). Laennec gave it his strong support
and held that either the pneumogastric or sympathetic divi-
sion of the cardiac nerves might be implicated, and with
either of them the brachial plexus. Corrigan, Romberg,
Bamberger, and others held the same opinion. Then in 1863
came the observations of Lancereaux on changes in the car-
diac nerves and ganglia, which were confirmed by Peter and
others. Huchard states (second edition, 1893) that there were
only twelve observations on neuritis of the cardiac nerves,
of which six were associated with disease of the coronary
arteries. More recent literature, so far as I know, does not
furnish additional cases, and the whole question of minute his-
tological changes in the sympathetic nerves and ganglia in
various disorders must be reviewed with the help of the new
technique.
Against this theory may be urged the common observa-
VASO-MOTOR CHANGES I N ANGINA. 125
tion that the cardiac nerves may be seriously implicatcd in
aneurysm, in mediastinal tumors, in adherent pericardium,
and in the exudate of acute pericarditis without causing the
slightest pain.
Again, in the attack of angina, though the pain is a promi-
nent feature, it is a part, and in a severe attack the minor
part, of the paroxysm. The m g o r anirni is very unlike
anything met with in neuralgic affections. Moreover, the
mode of onset following exertion or emotion is not a feature
of neuralgia, and this view affords no solution of the sudden
death which sometimes follows. I n its paroxysmal charac-
ter and radiation, and in its intensity, the pain is much more
like that of biliary and renal colic; with the latter, indeed,
I have heard a patient who had experienced both compare it.
Of course, the pain suffered in an attack of angina is a
manifestation of disturbed function of the nerves. Such dis-
turbance, when associated with pain, may be called neuralgic,
but it is evident, from what has been stated, that there is
something i n addition, which puts the attack out of the cate-
gory of ordinary painful affections of the nerves. There are
many conditions about the heart in which the nerves are di-
rectly implicated with which neuralgia occurs. I have already
told you that there is no constancy in this, and there may be
old pericardial adhesions, fresh epicarditis with direct involve-
ment of the superficial nerves, or there may be sclerosis of
the root of the aorta, aneurysm or tumor with pressure on
the pneumogastric, without any pain whatever. But again,
in all of these conditions there may be recurring attacks of
pain about the heart, sometimes of great intensity, and even
simulating that of true angina.
111. VASO-MOTOR CHANGES I N ANGINA.-In LeCtUre 1111
mentioned the striking vaso-motor phenomena of the attack
-the pallor, the coldness, and the sweating-and in the last
lecture I spoke of a special type of pseudo-angina in which

these features dominated the scene. They play a conspicuous
rble both in the functional and organic forms. Naturally,
one approaches a vaso-motor problem with a good deal of
caution, since it lends itself with singular aptness to theo-
retical vagaries and to all kinds of speculation. It is well to
remember that, as Foster remarks, the vaso-motor nerves are
servants, not masters, in the matter of regulating the calibre
of vessels and altering the blood pressure.
I have already spoken of the state of the arteries during
the paroxysm, and have given a summary of my personal
experience on this moot question. The general opinion is
that in true angina there is an early angeiospasm with great
increase in the blood pressure. Sphygmographic tracings
during the attack have not often been made. Lauder Brun-
ton’s observation is particularly interesting, and I show you
here the tracings vhich he gives, taken from the radial pulse
before and during an attack. It can not be doubted, I think,
that in many cases an important factor is, as Mitchell Bruce
expresses it, too much pressure ahead of the driving power;
but this widespread peripheral spasm is probably a secondary
phenomenon, excited reflexly through influences on the vaso-
motor centre coming from the heart itself or from other parts.
Morison, of whose paper in volume iii of the Edinburgh Hos-
pita2 Reports I have already spoken, gives the notes of a pa-
tient with aortic insufficiency, in whom during an attack the
pulse tension was low, and he thinks that even in the organic
form there may be considerable variations, more especially in
the cases with or without insufficiency of the aortic valve. It
may be questioned, indeed, whether the tracing in Brunton’s
case really represents a great increase in the tension, or wheth-
er it does not mean that the left ventricle was in a condition of
feebleness or dilatation, and the pulse tension extremely low.
VASO-MOTOR CHANGES I N ANGINA. 127
I show you here by way of contrast the tracings given by
IIuchard, in which, as you notice, the one in the interval be-
tween the attack with the low tension resembles very much
that of Brunton's during the attack with supposed high ten-
sion.
A majority of patients with true angina have reached an
age in which naturally the blood tension is increased, and in
almost every instance the exciting causes of the paroxysm are
those which raise the arterial pressure-mental emotion, mus-
cular exertion, cold to the periphery, and dilatation of the
stomach. You will find in Brunton's paper an admirable
discussion of the importance of these factors in raising the
blood pressure, and in bringing about the anginal paroxysm.
Favoring, too, this view of widespread angeiospasm is the
circumstance that in certain cases of Raynaud's disease an-
gina pectoris of a very severe type has occurred, and has even
proved fatal. The most interesting case of this kind in the
literature is reported by Richard Cleeman." A man, aged
sixty-two years, had from his fiftieth year severe attacks of
Raynaud's disease, chiefly in the hands, which occurred usu-
ally in the winter season. One day he had an attack of ago-
nizing substernal pain lasting for two hours, and of such in-
tensity that he was greatly prostrated. The pains radiated
down both arms. During a period immediately preceding this
he had had very pronounced attacks of local asphyxia and
local syncope, chiefly in the hands. A week later he was
found dead in bed.
The association of migraine with angina pectoris, particu-
larly the vaso-motor form, has been long recognized, and in
two cases in my series the subjects had been great sufferers
with this disease.
* Transaction of the College of Physicians, Philadelphia, 1892.

There are two possible explanations of the vaso-motor phe-

nomena of angina pectoris. I n the first place a widespread
vaso-motor spasm, excited reflexly by cold, by emotion, by
flatulence, etc., throws a great strain upon the left ventricle
with, as Traube thought, distention, stretching, and conse-
quent pain. Of course, in this widespread angeiospasm the
coronary vessels themselves may participate, and it is not at
all improbable that in the hysterical and vaso-motor varieties
of angina the entire symptom-complex may be vaso-motor.
The possibility of a local (coronary) angeiospasm may be
admitted in the toxic cases and in organic disease of the coro-
nary arteries. On the other hand, the widespread constrictor
influence in the systemic arteries in an attack of true angina
may itself be a vaso-motor reflex. Hegar showed experimen-
tally that a great increase in the general blood pressure could
be excited reflexly on the injection of nitrate of silver into the
peripheral artery of a rabbit. I n the same way the pallor,
coldness, sweating, and general vaso-contrictor influences in
true angina may be excited reflexly by afferent impulses from
the coronary vessels themselves.
RELATIOXS OF PSEIJDO TO TRUE AmmA.-One other mat-
ter remains for brief comment. What relation do the phe-
nomena of spurious angina bear to those of the organic affec-
tion? Huchard insists upon the absolute separation of the
organic form associated with coronary-artery disease from the
various other types of cardiac pain. H e says: ‘‘ I1 m’y a pas
plusieurs angimes de poitrine ;il n’y e n a pu’ume seule, Z’an-
gine cwonarienne.” According to him the pseudo-anginas
are neuralgias of the cardiac plexus due to various causes, or
a vaso-motor neurosis. It must be acknowledged that the at-
tacks of vaso-motor angina and of the form seen in nervous
and hysterical women have many of the characters of a parox-
ysmal neurosis, resembling indeed in certain particulars mi-
RELATIONS OF PSEUDO TO TRUE ANGINA. 129
graine. Closely allied as no doubt many of the underlying

conditions are, and simulating often the features of the genu-
ine attack, I fully concur with Iluchard and others who sepa-
rate the functional from the organic form; and, while the
former come very properly in the category of paroxysmal neu-
roses, the true angina presents features entirely unlike a neu-
ralgia. The chief objections have been well and clearly put
by Fagge: “ B u t for a neuralgia to prove habitually fatal is
without precedent. Moreover, angina pectoris diff ers from all
neuroses in being generally, if not always, associated with the
existence of organic lesions in the heart or in the great vessels,
although it would seem that no one lesion is constantly pres-
ent; this, at any rate, is true of the cases that destroy life.
Thirdly, it is unlike a neuralgia to attack, as angina does by
a large preponderance, more males than females-as many
as ten men to one women.”
I n the neurotic form the fundamental error appears to
be a vaso-motor instability, for which S. Solis-Cohen has sug-
gested the name vaso-motor ataxia, a term which really defines
the condition, a loss of the power nicely to balance the distri-
bution of blood in the vascular territories. I n the organic
form not only is the question much more complicated, but
there are features quite inexplicable in the present state of
our knowledge-notably the haphazard incidence in anatomi-
cal conditions apparently identical, the causation of the pain,
and the relation of the blood pressure, cardiac, coronary, and
systemic, to the phenomena of the attack.
Were the problems of blood pressure solved, angina pec-

toris would be an open book to us; but in spite of the unceas-
ing work of the past thirty years much obscurity remains, with
not a little dissonance and discord. The trained student
among you who wishes to get upon a working basis should
study the articles of Porter referred to in Lecture I, the im-

portant monograph of Roy and Adami," the B e a r t Studies+
of Ewart, von Basch's works and his recent brochure on @e-
fussstarre (Angiorhigosis) $-these, with Tigerstedt # m a
sort of Baedeker, will promote his enlightenment. The less
ambitious will be coiiteiit with the lucid account in Stewart's
Physiology, f a c i l e princeps among manuals on the subject.
i+Philosophical Transactions, 1892.

t London, 1894.
3 Vienna, 1896.
Q Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Kreislaufes, Leipsic, 1893.
LECTURE VII.
DIAGNOSIS, PROGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT OF ANGINA.
Anomalous cases of heart pain.-Elements in the diagnosis of true angina.-

Differentiation of true and pseudo angina.-Prognosis.-Treatment of
angina pectoris vera.-Treatment of false sngina.-Conclusion.
DIAGNosIs.-one must be a professional Ulysses in craft

and wisdom not sometimes to err in estimating the nature of
a n attack of severe heart pain. There is no group of cases so
calculated to keep one in a condition of wholesome humility.
When you jostle against a hale, vigorous specimen of human-
ity, who claps you on the back and says, The deuce take
((
you doctors! I have scarcely yet got over my fright,” you

would like to forget that five years before you had almost
signed his death warrant in a very positive diagnosis of angina
pectoris vera. On the other hand, Mr. X. has left you with
the full assurance that his cardiac pains are due to overwork
or tobacco, and you have comforted his wife and lifted a
weight of sorrow from both by your most favorable prognosis.
With what sort of appetite can you eat your breakfast when,
a week later, you read in the morning paper the announce-
ment of his sudden death in the railway station? Or take
another aspect-poor Nrs. Doe has gone softly all these years
in the bitterness of her soul since you took that grave view
of her vaso-motor or hysterical angina!
As a rule you will have little or no doubt as to the exist-
ence of angina. The chief difficulty is in deciding upon the
131
functional or organic nature of the trouble. There are, how-

ever, extraordinary cases of recurring pain about the heart,
of terrible severity, the nature of which may be very obscure.
The following is one of the most remarkable cases of this
kind which I have met:
J. H. McC., aged forty-nine years, seen April 28, 1887, com-

plaining of attacks of terrible substernal pain. IIe was a large,
active man, weighing a hundred and ninety-five pounds. With
the exception of a chancre at his fifteenth year, which was fol-
Iowed by an ulcer on the leg eight months afterward, and
typhoid fever three years ago, his general health has been good.
Twelve years ago (1875) he consulted Dr. Weir Mitchell f o r
the follou~ingsymptoms: Every morning, about one o’clock, he
was aroused from sleep with severe pains in the lower part of the
chest, beneath the sternum. At first the attacks occurred
every night, and then at intervals of four or five days. The pain
was not like a cramp o r a spasm, but dull and severe, intense
enough to make him get up and walk the room. For nearly
ten years the attacks made his life a burden. They ceased
abruptly in 1885, since which date he has been quite well until
March 28th of this year. He now has the attack every day about
1 A.M. He goes to bed at ten o’clock and falls to sleep com-
fortably. Usually about 1 A.M., sometimes at three or four
o’clock, he is aroused by a fixed pain beneath the sternum be-
tween the fourth and fifth costal cartilages. It is never trans-
mitted down the arm; he is never doubled up with it, nor does
he turn pale or sweat. He occasionally belches wind during
the attack. The pain at times is so severe that he has to take
an anmthetic. Thus on the 29th he awoke at 3.30 A . M . in
terrible agony, and had t o take ether. He slept until after five
o’clock, when the pain again came on and persisted until noon.
He says he has noticed that it is often worse after the rest of Sun-
day. The examination was entirely negative. The arteries were
not stiff; the heart’s action was regular; the aortic second sound
was not accentuated. He winced a little on deep pressure just
above the ensiform cartilage. The urine was normal.
He had taken iodide of potassium previously without, he
I
DIAGNOSIS OB ANGINA PECTORIS. 133

thought, any benefit. Considering, however, the history of
syphilis, I insisted that he should take it again. I heard from
him on several occasions f o r a gear or so, and there was not very
much change in his condition. I have since lost track of him.
A somewhat similar case to this is reported by Dr. Ran-

dall, of Decatur, in the Medical News for March 11, 1893.
The patient was a healthy man who had remarkable seizures
of agonizing pain in an area twelve inches in diameter over
the heart, which recurred nightly from August 1st to Decem-
ber 16th unless he remained awake and out of bed. The pa-
tient was a self-possessed, unimaginative man, and had never
had similar attacks. The pain was sometimes greatest in the
epigastrium, sometimes in the praecordium, and with it there
were tingling and numbness i n the arms, and a sense of suffo-
cation. There was no dyspnea or asthmatic breathing. The
patient could avert the attack every night by vigilance. It is
difficult to decide upon the nature of such cases.
The important elements in diagnosis are the sex, the pres-
ence of cardio-vascular disease, and the phenomena of the
attack.
Upon the infrequency of true angina in women I have
already dwelt, and you must be cautious even when the gen-
eral features of the case are most suggestive. Such an in-
stance, for example, as the following should not deceive you:
Mrs. R., aged forty-two years, seen October 25, 1894. She
has always been a healthy woman, but has had much trouble
and worry. Her husband had attacks of angina pectoris, and
died a year ago of heart disease. Her mother died in an attack
of angina pectoris three years ago. For nearly a year she had
been unable to rest comfortably on her left side, and had been
much troubled with pains about the heart, which were some-
times of great severity, and were then accompanied by a feel-
ing of numbness in the left arm extending to the fingers.
134 ANGINA PECTOEIS AND ALLIED STATES.
Neither diet nor exercise seemed to make any difference, and

she never had dyspnea. Sometimes the whole of the left side,
including the neck, would feel stiff and sore. Though she had
been free for a few days from the sensations of pain, she had not
within the past year had a week of complete intermission. She
had evidently worried very much about it, and dreaded con-
sulting a physician, lest she should be told she had the disease
of which her mother and husband had died.
The patient was a healthy looking woman. The pulse was
quiet, without increase in the tension, and the arteries were not
stiff. There were no signs of hypertrophy or dilatation of the
heart; the sounds were normal. The urine had a specific gravity
of 1.018, and was free from albumin and tube casts. I have
seen this patient on several occasions during the past two years,
and her condition has improved very much.
There are cases, too, in which hystcrical angina occurs in

women with aortic valve disease. The only instance of the
kind which has come under my notice is the following:
Mrs. E., aged thirty-eight years, seen February 24, 1890.

The patient was an unusually bright, able woman, who had f o r
several years lived tinder a serious mental strain. She had severe
rheumatism as a. child, and she had been told by several physi-
cians-among others the late Dr. Austin Flint and Dr. Da Costa
-that she had heart disease. The first serious attack of pain
about her heart was two years ago at a hotel, when she fainted.
During the past three months she had had eight or ten attacks.
They usually came on when she was worried or very anxious.
She got cold; the pains began just under the left breast and shot
into the arm and up the neck. During the attacks her physician
said she had often been quite hysterical, tossing herself about,
and talking in a very incoherent way. The apex beat of the
heart was a little outside the normal position; the aortic second
sound was intensified, and at midsternum, opposite the third
costal cartilage and along the left border of the sternum, there
was a soft diastolic murmur. The pulse was regular, a little
jerky; the vessel wall was a little firmer than normal. When
DIAGNOSIS O F ANGINA PECTORIS. 135
I saw her she was having pretty frequent attacks, and was very
nervous and hysterical. After removal from her home sur-
roundings, with rest and quiet, and a course of tonics, she im-
proved very greatly. After my examination I made the follow-
ing note: " Do the attacks represent true or hysterical angina?
That there is a strong neurotic element is undoubted, but the
presence of aortic insufficiency, a condition which had been
recognized by several physicians some years ago, makes the diag-
nosis a little dubious." I have seen the patient at intervals
during the past& years, and she has had no recurrences of the
attacks, and has been in excellent health.
The extreme rarity of true angina in women must always

be borne in mind, and also the infrequency of its association,
as noted in Lecture 11, with mitral-valve disease. Flushes,
parscsthesize, and various nervous or hysterical manifesta-
tions, and particularly the vaso-dilator type of phenomena,
suggest strongly pseudo-angina, even though a loud mitral
murmur be present. I saw with Dr. Clark, of Kingston,
Ontario, a very puzzling case of this kind, the notes of which
I have unfortunately mislaid.
In men, while true angina may coexist with apparently
normal cardio-vascular condition, in a very large proportion
of all cases there are signs of greatly heightened blood pres-
sure, or of sclerosis of the arteries, with a ringing metallic
aortic second sound; sometimes only the signs of a weak
heart. I n men under the age of forty the existence of syphilis
should be suspected, as a by no means inconsiderable number
of cases result from an aortitis, causing great swelling of the
intima and narrowing of the orifices of the coronaries.
I n men, too, the question of tobacco has always to be con-
sidered, as recurring paroxysms of really maximum intensity
may be due to persistent smoking or chewing.
In determining between a true and a false angina, the
phenomena of the attack offer must valuable differential cri-
teria. The character of the pain in pseudo-angina, while it

may be very severe, rarely has the agonizing quality of true
angina, and is seldom, if ever, associated with the sensation
of impending death. Patients more often complain of a sense
of fullness and distention in the heart. The seat of the pain
may be in both identical, and I do not think that much stress
can be Iaid on the point that in pseudo-angina the maximum
pain is more over the heart and toward its apex, while in the
organic disease the chief seat of the pain is toward the base
of the heart and over the aorta. You must remember that in
true angina the seat of the pain may be entirely away from the
chest, and may be, as in Lord Clarendon’s father, at the inner
aspect of the arm, or about the wrist, or in rare instances con-
fined to the side of the neck, or even to one testis. While in
both forms the pain may radiate to the side of the neck and
to the left aim, in pseudo-angina the associated nervous sen-
sations are apt to be much more widespread. There may be
numbness and tingling in both extremities, or prior to the
onset there may be a feeling of pins and needles in the hands
and feet. The vaso-motor phenomena are apt to be much
more pronounced in pseudo-angina. The attack may be pre-
ceded by flushes, by a sensation of great oppression in the
back of the neck or head, and then before the onset of the
cardiac pain, not with it or following it, there is coldness of
the extremities and sometimes a pronounced tremulousness
amounting to what is popularly called a nervous chill. Sweat-
ing, combined with the pallor, is not so common in pseudo-
angina. The paroxysms of false angina rarely have great
abruptness of onset, but are preceded by various nervous and
hysterical features.
The attitude in angina pectoris vera is one of its most
characteristic features. The patient rarely can stir from the
spot in which he is attacked. I n the hysterical and neuras-
DIAGNOSIS O F ANGINA PECTORIS. 137
thenic angina there is often great jactitation, seldom immo-

bility. The patient tosses about on the bed with noisy ex-
clamations of pain, or may walk the floor screaming loudly.
The duration of the attack in pseudo-angina is usually
more prolonged, lasting perhaps an hour or more. As I have
already mentioned, it occasionally happens that even in the
true angina, as in Mr. Sumner’s case, the patient is able to
walk about, finding relief in moderate exercise during the
attack.
And, lastly, among the important points of diagnosis are
the circumstances which promote the attacks. I n true angina
the patient can nearly always fix upon some provocation, as
muscular effort, mental irritation, an attack of indigestion;
whereas i n pseudo-angina the attacks are much more apt to
occur spontaneously, and rarely are excited by effort.
It must be acknowledged that the diagnosis is not always
so easy as you might supose from any glib summary of dif-
ferential signs; thus just the other day 1was consulted by a
practitioner from one of the large Western cities, in whose
case the existence of certain well-pronounced coincident nerv-
ous phenomena seemed alone to clinch the question of diag-
nosis. The patient was aged about fifty, a strong man, of
strong stock, who had been engaged in large general practice
for more than twenty-five years. H e had never had syphilis,
and had been temperate in the use of alcohol and tobacco;
somewhat intemperate in coffee. H e had lived a life of a good
deal of tension, but had been very well, with the exception
of at intervals rheumatic and neuralgic pains. H e had never
had gout. Two years ago, after a long and tiring drive, he
went out one evening to make a visit, and whilc at the patient’s
door had a very severe attack of pain about the apex of the
heart, which lasted for a minute or two, and which fright-
ened him very much. The next day at dinner he was seized
10
again, but the pain was scarcely so intense; it was duller and
more boring in character. H e suffered all night, and in the
morning had to take a hypodermic injection of morphine.
H e had no faintness, the circulation was not involved, and
there was no sense of impending dissolution. H e felt very
weak and used up for nearly a week. H e had no return what-
ever of the pain until last October. H e had been working
very hard, and had lost a great deal of rest. Then he had
the pains at intervals, while he was driving, at the table, when
walking, or in bed. They were never very severe, and did
not interfere with his work. They were chiefly about the apex
of the heart, not beneath the sternum. They radiated down
the arms, particularly the left, but he has had pains in both
arms as far as the wrists, with numbness, and on several occa-
sions he has had pain and numbness i n the left arm without
the pain about the heart. These attacks persisted on and off
all through the winter, until about two months ago. H e
then had an attack of influenza with fever, and since then he
has had a great deal of nervous palpitation of the heart, par-
ticularly with emotion, or if his stomach is full. H e does not
appear ever to have had a severe agonizing attack with sweat-
ing and a sense of impending dissolution.
Certainly in a man of over fifty, though his heart was
normal, and his arteries not specially sclerotic, and the pulse
tension very little raised, such attacks were, to say the least,
suggestive of true angina. But on going into his case more
fully two circumstances developed, which were, I think, of
much moment, indicating probably that he was of a more
neurotic temperament than he was willing to confess. Be-
tween three and four years ago, when overworked and worried,
he had extraordinary attacks of slight spasm of the glottis,
which would come on while he was taking food, or at any
time if he was very excited. It would be relieved with a
PROGNOSIS O F ANGINA PECTORIS. 139
deep, noisy inspiration almost like childcrowing. These at-

tacks passed away, and he has not had them since. But last
summer his wife says that he had the most extraordinary
attacks of spasm of the gullet, recurring at every meal for
nearly six weeks. A t the first attempt at swallowing, either
of liquids or of solids, there would be a sudden interruption,
which he describes as a sort of spasm of the gullet, and he had
to wait several minutes for it to pass off before he could take
another mouthful. This patient was very nervous and appre-
hensive that he had true angina, and yet I think the exist-
ence of well-marked cesophagismus and of laryngeal spasm
three or four years ago are circumstances which suggest a
diagnosis of pseudo-angina.
PROGNOSIS.-One of the most distinguishing features of
true angina is a consciousness on the part of the patient, in
his anguish o f mind, that the very citadel of life has been
approached. I n a severe, long-continued paroxysm all de-
sire of recovery may be absent in the dread lest he should
have again to endure the agony. Subjects of the disease may
truly be said to stand in jeopardy every hour, yet it is astonish-
ing with what equanimity the affliction is endured. Charles
Sumner said: ‘‘ This treacherous disease produces in my mind
a positive uncertainty when I go out of my house whether I
shall ever enter it again a living man.” The duration of the
disorder is most uncertain; there are notable cases, such as
John Hunter, in which the attacks have recurred at intervals
for twenty or more years.
Recovery is quite possible, and there are instances in which
the attacks disappear entirely. I n June of last year, in con-
sultation out of town about a case of heart disease, Dr. -
mentioned to me his own case as one o f exceptional interest.
H e was a man of fifty years of age, and had been in very active
practice. Twenty years ago, he had been for nearly a year
a terrible sufferer with angina. H e was under the care of

the late Dr. Donaldson, who regarded the attacks as genuine,
as there was also well-marked aortic insufficiency. The pa-
tient has remained perfectly free for twenty years.
I saw in November, 1886, with Dr. J. William White, a naval

officer, aged forty-six years, who had had severe attacks of angina
dssociated with inimobility and a sense of great angor. He was
a powerfully built man, who had lived well and had taken a
great deal of heavy exercise. The pulse tension was increased
and the aortic second was accentuated. He had been a heavy
smoker, but had not had syphilis. He had kept a very accurate
account of the attacks, and he had between October 11, 1886,
and August 11,1887, two hundred and thirty-nine, most of them
slight, but some of terrible severity. From the date mentioned
to the present he has remained perfectly well, and attributes his
recovery largely t o the use of the iodide of potassium. He
stopped smoking at the time of the paroxysms, but has resumed
it since without any detriment.
In a disease so notoriously uncertain as true angina, the

prognosis must necessarily be most guarded. Fortunately, as
I have already said, the character of the attack is such that
the patient is very well aware of the extreme hazard of his
state. Of the important elements in prognosis, the following
are to be considered :
The frequency and severity of the attacks. Recurrence
at short intervals of paroxysms of great severity, induced by
slight exertion, is of ill omen, particularly if with them
there are marked cardiac arrhythmia and signs of dilata-
tion.
The existence of valvular disease does not in itself mate-
rially aggravate the prognosis. A large majority of the worst
cases of angina show no signs of valvular lesions. The exist-
ence of aortic disease renders the patient, of course, much
PROGNOSIS O F ANGINA PECTORIS. 141
more liable to myocardial changes and dilatation and the

other consequences of progressive failure of the muscular
power. The following is a remarkable instance of good health,
even vigor, for years with aortic-valve disease and angina of
ten years’ duration:
Mr. X., aged fifty-one years, Holbrook, Maryland, consulted

me June 10, 1895. His general health had always been good.
So long as he could remember he had had heart trouble; he had
been short of breath on exertion, and had been conscious, as he
expressed it, of a sort of grinding in his chest. When a child
he had attacks of extensive blotches on the skin with gastro-
intestinal pain (Henoch’s purpura). He had rheumatism when
twenty-two, but no swelling or redness of the joints. With care
he has been able to get about and has lived very comfortably,
though he has never been able to do heavy work.
He looked pale, a little thin, and had a suggestive cardiac
facies; there were no signs of any swelling of the joints. There
was an inguinal hernia on the right side. The apex beat was in
the fifth and sixth spaces just outside the nipple line. There
was a large area of cardiac impulse. There was a loud systolic
murmur at the apex region, propagated to axilla and loudly
along pectoral border. I t increased in intensity toward the left
margin of sternum. I n the whole apex region there was almost
silence in diastole, perhaps a faint rumble, and at the apex there
was a slight systolic shock. The systolic murmur became very
loud over the sternum, and attained a maximum intensity at the
second right costal cartilage, where it was rough, harsh, vibra-
tory, and was propagated with great intensity into thc vessels.
Along the left margin of sternum and as low as the ensiform
cartilage there was an extremely soft diastolic murmur. There
was no pulsation to be felt in the sternal notch. The pul-
sation in the superficial arteries was visible; the vessels were
a little stiff. The pulse was 100, not collapsing, of medium
volume, and gave one the impression of effort.
He had his first attack of angina ten years ago, coming from
Chicago. Two years subsequently he had another attack, and
had to have morphine. He has had six or seven attacks alto-
gether, the last one seven days ago as he was getting out of bed.
On each occasion there has been a single attack; morphine
alone controls them.
Ten years ago he evidently had an attack of cardiac break-
down, with great shortness of breath. Subsequently, for three
years, he took ten drops of the tincture of digitalis three times
a day, without missing, he thinks, a single dose. During the
attack he feels very badly; there is immobility and agonizing
pain in the chest, he feels as if he was going to die, and he sweats
profusely.
A word or two upon an ethical problem which is often

very perplexing-viz., What is your duty in the matter of tell-
ing a patient that he is probably the subject of an incurable
disease? I can give you no hard-and-fast rule; the tempera-
ment of the individual himself, his associations and responsi-
bilities, your own convictions as to the seriousness of the con-
dition-all these must be carefully weighed. The question is
somewhat theoretical, since in reality the necessity does not
often arise. The announcement has already been made, for
no man suffers the anguish of a severe paroxysm of angina
without a consciousness of the nearness of the Angel of Death.
W e are sometimes, I confess, placed in positions of the utmost
delicacy, since a man may have not the slightest intimation of
his parlous state, and you may become aware of the urgent
necessity that he should make proper arrangements to protect
his wife and children. I n such a case a quiet hint as to the
uncertainty of the outlook in heart and artery disease may be
enough to set him a-thinking; or, in the case of an “even-
balanced soul,” the whole question may be discussed frankly.
One thing is certain: it is not for you to don the black cap,
and, assuming the judicial function, take hope from any pa-
tient-“ hope that comes to all ”-and you may dwell with
advantage on the aspects of John I-Iunter’s case rather than
on those of Thomas Arnold.
TREATMENT O F TRUE ANGINA. 143
TREATMENT.-“ The first and great object of the practi-
tioner on being called on to treat a case of angina will be
to make himself acquainted with its individual character.
Beginning with the early history of the disease, he will trace
it to its present stage, and will endeavor, from the narrative
of the patient and from the observation of the whole phe-
nomena presented to him, to form a clear judgment respect-
ing the local condition of the organs in which the characteristic
symptoms have their site, and the state of all the other parts
of the system which can in any way influence these; in other
words, he must endeavor to ascertain the species or variety
of angina, according to the distinction formerly pointed out.”
This clear statement of Sir John Forbes forms a fitting intro-
duction to the discussion of this part of our subject. Suc-
cessful treatment depends often upon correct diagnosis ; but
there are cases of angina pectoris brought to the consultant
i n which diagnosis and prognosis in themselves constitute the
treatment. To a man who has felt that judgment has been
given against him, the doom pronounced, and whose mind
is haunted with the dread of sudden death, the assurance that
the condition is functional and curable comes as a reprieve,
and may be the one thing necessary to effect the cure.
True Angina.-Determine in the first place, if possible,
the existence of any constitutional disease, as syphilis, gout,
or diabetes, and the presence or absence of valvular lesions.
(a) General Management.-Inquire carefully about the
exciting causes of the attacks, which differ in different cases.
Usually the patient has learned by bitter experience his limita-
tions in certain directions, and knows much better than you
can tell him just what to avoid; but you can emphasize the
importance of mental worry, exercise, and diet, the three chief
factors. Quiet of mind, avoidance of worries and cares, the
cultivation of a calm equanimity-with these, or such like
phrases, we try to impress a poor victim who to previous anxie-

ties has now the added burden of a disease the terrible char-
acter of which he can appreciate but can not understand.
Our words often seem a mockery, and yet they may be help-
ful in persuading a man to cast off all unnecessary business
and to live a life in which there shall be a minimum of fric-
tion. Time, too, with its soothing deception, comes to allay
the access of early apprehension, and as succeeding attacks
pass there may be less and less mental distress. A n important
question arises here, Shall a man with angina give up his
business? I n a majority of cases this sacrifice is unnecessary;
the literature abounds with examples of men who, like John
Hunter, have done the best work of their lives after the onset
of angina. There is so much uncertainty that no rule can be
laid down; each individual case must be considered separately.
The patient’s age, occupation, and, above all, the condition
of the vascular system, must be taken into account. Even
after a most severe attack, followed by a cardiac breakdown
of several months’ duration, a man may be able to resume
work, and, as in Case V, referred to in Lecture 111, be bene-
fited by the steady occupation.
Exercise must be taken within the limits which each in-
dividual soon learns to recognize. I n Severe recurring attacks
induced by slight muscular efforts, a period of absolute rest
should be enjoined. The sudden, quick movements which
rapidly increase the blood pressurc and throw a strain upon
the heart are the most dangerous; and most of all those
with which are associated strong emotions. The patient
should be urged to walk on the level, in the literal as well as
metaphorical meaning of the phrase. He should learn “ t o
live within the income of his circulation,” with which wise
saw from the lips of the late Dr. Sibson a friend with organic
heart disease has been comforted and sustained for a quarter
TRUE ANGINA. 145
of a century. Steady, quiet exercise should be encouraged,
except, of course, when there are special signs of cardiac
weakness, in which case the resistance gymnastics of the Schott
method may be tried.
Diet is in many cases the central point in the treatmcnt.
The subjects of angina are often men with large appetites,
accustomed to eat freely of rich and strong foods. First, limit
the amount taken, which in most persons above forty years
of age is far too great; second, see that the quality is suitable
by excluding from the dietary rich, highly seasoned foods
and those which favor fermentation; and third, arrange the
hours for eating. The subjects of angina are usually aware
of the necessity of limiting the quantity of food and drink
taken at one timo. So soon as the stomach is distended there
may be warnings of distress about the heart, or i n aggravated
cases a full meal may always cause an attack. As one patient
expressed it, " Had I not to eat, I would never suffer." Light
meals should be the rule in all cases; at breakfast and at mid-
day dinner mor0 may be taken than at the evening meal.
Late suppers should be interdicted-there is " death in the
pot " for angina victims, and a surfeit may be as fatal as
poison.
The quality of the food is equally important. Special
dietaries may be necessary for patients with gout and glyco-
suria, but in ordinary cases thc food is to be regulated with
reference to one all-important feature-viz., flatulence. As
you may remember, almost every one of the old writers laid
the greatest stress upon this element in the causation of the
attacks, and they were right. I n dealing with the question of
diet we are too apt to adopt some fad to which, with Pro-
crustean precision, we fit every case. A more rational way is
to recognize the extraordinary peptic diversity in our patients
-in no respect more strikingly shown than in this very mat-
146 ANGINA PECTORIS AND ALLIED STATES
ter of flatulency. Beyond the generally accepted restriction

of the carbohydrates we can not go very far without meeting
individual peculiarities which have to be considered. The
patient himself has to be consulted carefully. Some of you
may call to mind what our distinguished colleague Dr. 8mol-
lett makes one of his characters, Matt. Bramble, say in Ilum-
phrey Clinker: *‘ For my own part, I have had a hospital these
fourteen years within myself, and studied my own case with
the most painful attention, consequently may be supposed to
know something of the matter.” We are too apt to forget
this. A n intelligent man should be able to tell you just what
articles of food cause most disturbance and produce wind in
the stomach or bowels. The fault may not lie in the food,
but in the inability of the stomach and bowels to digest it prop-
erly. The obese, flabby subjects of angina-not the most
numerous class in my experience-and those with weak heart
and arterio-sclerosis are specially prone to flatulence. A few
doses of blue mass, an occasional saline purge, and the use at
times of a good bitter tonic keep this condition in check. The
use of hot water before meals, particularly before breakfast,
has been found very serviceable.
I n elderly men accustomed to stimulants, hot grog at bed-
time allays the tendency to flatulency, which is sometimes
the cause of wakefulness, or which is apt t o disturb the pa-
tient in the early morning hours. Peppermint, spirits of cam-
phor, Hoffniann’s anodyne, carbolic acid, iodine, and creosote
are useful for “wind on the stomach.’’ F o r the intestinal
flatulency a saline purge is often a good corrective; the vari-
ous supposed intestinal disinfectants may be tried-salol, bcta-
naphthol, and corrosire sublimate, of which pilules of from
one sixtieth to one thirtieth of a p a i n may be given sometimes
with advantage.
(6) General dlediical Treatment.-Of constitutional con-
GENERAL NEDICAL TREATNENT. 147
ations underlying angina pectoris and capable of treatment,
syphilis and gout are the most important. Genuine angina
i n a man under thirty-five years of age should arouse a sus-
picion of syphilis, and vigorous measures should be adopted.
I n gouty cases free elimination by the bowels, skin, and kid-
neys should be secured, a proper diet ordered, and at intervals
a course of colchicum may be prescribed.
One patient, Dr. -, emphasized repeatedly the benefit
he had derived from colchicum. Stimulants should be avoided.
Glycosuria is usually controlled by diet, and rarely gives much
trouble.
I n a large proportion of all cases of angina pectoris the
treatment consists i n the administration of the iodides and
nitrites, remedies which are believed to influence arterial func-
tion and arterial nutrition. The use of the iodides of potas-
sium and sodium in this disorder has been advocated most
warmly by Huchard, who states that of eighty patients with
organic angina treated thoroughly by these drugs twenty-
two recovered, forty-three were greatly benefited, and fifteen
died.” The iodides appear to have a beneficial effect in check-
ing or modifying the progress of arterio-sclerosis and in lower-
ing the blood pressure. They may influence, too, arterial
pain. I have called your attention repeatedly to the influence
of iodide of potassium in aneurysm of the aorta, in which the
relief of the pain is one of its most striking effects. While I
can not say that my experience is in every way so favorable as
IIuchard’s, I can testify to the great relief which has followed
its m e in many cases, and in a few an apparent cure. Cases
which were thoroughly treated nearly ten years ago remain
quite well, and I have had within the past three years several
patients who have heen greatly benefited. I usually order
i: L e Trnitement de l’angine de poitrine, Paris, 1892.

the iodide of potassium in doses of ten or fifteen grains three

times a day. Should it disagree, which is very seldom, I give
the sodium salt. Larger doses are not often necessary. I f
intolerance develops, stop the use for a week and begin with
smaller doses. The success in treatment depends upon the
perseverance with which the drug is used. On this point let
me quote from Huchard’s pamphlet: “ One of the principal
conditions of success is perseverance-constancy in the medi-
cation. The drug must be taken for a period of two to four
years, in daily doses of one to three grammes, until all symp-
toms of angina have disappeared for many months, and I hold
that a permanent and definitive recovery is not obtainable
except after many years of treatment.” Reasonable caution
must be employed, and you would not give the iodides in pa-
tients with advanced arterial degeneration, a dilated heart,
and signs of interstitial nephritis. The patients who stand the
treatment well are the robust, middle-aged men in whom the
angina is the sole symptom. With aortic disease, if fairly
compensated, the drug may be used.
The nitrites in hypertension and angina pectoris are of
value quite equal to the iodides. The nitrite of amyl is em-
ployed in the paroxysm. The nitroglycerin or trinitrin is
indicated in all cases in which the tension is persistently high.
Given properly, it is a very valuable remedy, but to get any
advantage from its use each case must be taken by itself.
I n the first place, be sure that the nitroglycerin, either in
solution or tablets, is fresh. The tablets containing one one-
hundredth of a grain are, as a rule, reliable. It is well to
begin with only one of these three times a day. The dose
may be increased gradually until the patient takes four or five
three times a day, or even a larger dose. If the patient notices
a slight glow or flush and a little sensation of fullness in the
head you may know that the remedy is acting. I feel sure
TREATMENT O F THE ATTACK. 149
that i n individual cases we often do not employ the drug in
sufficient doses. I have never seen it do any harm. The ex-
treme flushing and throbbing headache give reliable indica-
tions when the limit has been reached. I have given as much
as thirty minims of the one-per-cent. solution, three times a
day, to a case of chronic arterio-sclerosis, without any disturb-
ance. The nitrite of sodium, recommended by Hay, may also
be tried in doses of five to ten grains three times a day.
Among other remedies which are useful in the general
medical treatment of angina, arsenic is sometimes very valu-
able. Balfour advises it particularly in the weak heart of
elderly people, when associated with pain of any kind. I n
cases of feeble heart with anamia, iron and strychnine are
most valuable remedies, and in order not to trouble the patient
with too many doses, arsenic, iron, and strychnine may be
given together in compressed powder or pills.
(e) Trentm,ent of the Attack.-So frequently is the parox-
ysm excited by gastro-intestinal disturbances that the sub-
jects of angina should not only be warned to. be on their
guard in this matter, bat should be prepared to take prompt
measures on the first indication of any distress. No doubt
it was from this standpoint that W. W. Ord made the some-
what paradoxical remark that if restricted to the use of one
drug in angina he would prefer sulphate of magnesium to
nitrite of amyl. A patient should be told to m e a saline purge
or blue mass or small doses of calomel when he feels gastro-
intestinal uneasiness. It frequently happens that much more
prompt treatment is necessary for a condition of flatulency.
R e should be provided with Hoffmann’s anodyne and spirits
of camphor; a teaspoonful of each in some peppermint water
or hot whisky makes an excellent carminative draught. The
combination of morphine, cannabis indica, hyoscyamus, cap-
sicum, peppermint, and spirits of chloroform which is now pre-
pared either in liquid or tablet form as chlorodyne is some-

times very advantageous. I n tablet form it is particularly
convenient, as it may be carried in the waistcoat pocket.
For the paroxysm itself there are three remedies:
Nitrite of amyl, two to five minims, inhaled from a hand-
kerchief, or from cotton wool placed at the bottom of a wine-
glass, gives prompt relief in certain cases. The patients are
in the habit of carrying the remedy in pedes containing
three to five minims, which can be rapidly broken in a hand-
kerchief and inhaled so soon as the very earliest symptoms of
the attack are noticed. The introduction of this drug, in the
treatment of angina, by Dr. Lauder Brunton has certainly
been a great boon to many sufferers, but too much must not be
expected of it. It is singularly uncertain. While in one
case the attacks are promptly cut short and almost immediate
relief obtained, in others it seems quite inert. Curiously
enough, considering that its physiological effect is in dilating
the peripheral vessels and relie~7ing the widespread angeio-
spasm, in my experience it has been less efficacious in the
vaso-motor type of the disease than in cases of organic angina.
It may produce its effect with great rapidity, as shown by the
fluslied face of the patient and the increased volume and soft-
ness of the pulse, without relieving the pain. It sometimes
acts better, given by the mouth, combined with the tincture
of capsicum in peppermint water.
Xorphine hypodermically is the most usefiil drug in the
attack, and if the pain is not relieved quickly by the nitrite
of amyl an injection of a quarter of a grain should be given,
and repeated in a half or three quarters of an hour if the
patient is not relieved. I n one case the nitrite of amyl failed
repeatedly to give the slightest relief, but from a quarter to a
third of a grain of morphine, hypodermicallp, never failed
to allay the terrible distress, and seemed also to steady and i i -
TREATMENT O F THE COMPLICATIONS. 151
prove the heart’s action. A point about the use of morphine
i n angina which I have never seen mentioned except in the
paper by Dr. Burney Yeo in the Praciitioner, already re-
ferred to, is the remarkable tolerance of morphine in certain
cases. I n reporting Case XXSII I mentioned that this pa-
tient received between ten o’clock on Saturday night and l
P. M. on Sunday five grains of morphine hypodermically and
by the mouth, which relieved the pain but did not give him
sleep. There are cases in which a hypodermic injection of a
quarter of a grain of morphine given at the first indication of
the attack, as a numbness in the hand or tingling in the
fingers, checks it at once.
And third, in any paroxysm of great intensity, while
waiting for the nitrite of amyl or morphine to take effect,
chloroform may be dropped upon a handkerchief and inhaled.
Balfour reconmends that it be poured on a sponge in a smell-
ing bottle, and the patient told to breathe it through the nose
as deeply as possible. I n a minute or two relief is obtained,
and as the patient comes under the influence of the drug
the bottle drops from his hand, and there is in this way no
danger of an overdose. The chloroform acts much more
promptly and is much pIeasanter to take than ether, and I
have never seen any dangerous effects from its use, even in
persons with very weak heart’s action.
(d) Treatment of the Comnplications.--For the syncope
of serious attacks the aromatic spirits of ammonia with Hoff-
mann’s anodyne and brandy may be given, or hypodermic
injections of ether or camphor. For the dilatation of the
heart and cardiac weakness, which sometimes follow the at-
tack, the nitroglycerin with strong frictions to the limbs may
favor the circulation at the periphery, while digitalis or digi-
talin may be given freeIy to stimulate the heart’s action.
Digitalin sometimes acts well, as in Case XXXVIII, and may
152 ANGINA PECTORIS: AND ALLIED STATES.
be given hypodermically. No hard-and-fast rule can be laid

down regarding the use of digitalis. I t sometimes acts badly,
as in a case very carefully studied by W. T. Sharpless, of
West Chester. Caffeine and camphor may also be employed.
I f all these measures seem futile, I would not hesitate to em-
ploy puncture of the heart-cardiocentesis-which may
arouse to quite vigorous action a dilated and paretic organ.
I do not know that this has been employed in the cardiac
asystole following a severe paroxysm of angina, but there are
instances on record, notably the case of Sloane (Edinburgh
Xedical Journal, vol. xl), in which puncture of the heart with
a needle driven firmly into the ventricle has aroused the flag-
ging action apparently without doing the slightest injury.
For the condition of chronic &tat de mal angineux, in
which, for a period of many days or even weeks, the patient
has recurring attacks with cardiac asthma and feebleness of
the circulation, your resources will be taxed to the uttermost.
For the dyspncea and the Cheyne-Stokes breathing full doses
of strychnine, hypodermically, may be employed, from a for-
tieth to a twentieth of a grain, three or four times a day.
Special care should be taken that the bowels are kept freely
opened. The cardiac measures already spoken of may be em-
ployed, and flying blisters to the precordia and to the bases
of the lungs may sometimes give relief.
Treatment of Pseudo-angina Pectoris.-The measures
must usually be directed to combating the underlying con-
dition of neurasthenia or hysteria. Occcasionally it happens,
particularly in medical men, that the mental relief afforded
by a positive diagnosis of pseudo-angina is in itself sufficient to
effect a cure. Cases I1 and 111,given in Lecture V, are good
illustrations of the improvement and permanent cure, up to
the present date, of attacks of maximum severity. It is not
easy to say to what the rapid relief could be attributed, as the
TREATMENT O F PSEUDO-ANGINA PECTORIS. 153
patients were given only general tonics. In other cases the

attacks recur for years, as in the wife of the physician from
the Province of Quebec, of whom I spoke, who had had
attacks for twenty-five or thirty years. In the severe form,
particularly when assocrated with much vaso-motor disturb-
ance, the Weir Mitchell treatment may be tried with ad-
vantage. The effects of seclusion, systematic massage, and
electricity, particularly the static form, are sometimes most
satisfactory. Where this is not feasible hydrotherapy should
be tried, either a systematic course at some institution, or,
if this is not practicable, the systematic use of the wet pack
at night, followed by thorough friction, will be found advan-
tageous. Some of these cases, particularly if treated at the
patient’s home, tax to the uttermost the resources of the physi-
cian. The change of air and scene in traveling will often
be found of advantage.
Drugs are of uncertain and doubtful benefit. W e often
have to order the bromides and valerian, and in cases with
much cardiac irritability and vaso-motor disturbance the use
of nitroglycerin in large doses seems sometimes to aid in
equalizing and steadying the circulation. I n looking over the
notes of my cases of pseudo-angina I notice this hopeful
feature, that with but one or two exceptions the patients are
at present not only alive and well, but free from attacks.
When the attacks of angina are due to the abuse of to-
bacco, the patient should give up the habit entirely. I do not
think there is much risk, either, in stopping abruptly.
Counter-irritation over the heart by means of the Paquelin
cautery or blisters, the use of strychnine in full doses, and, if
the pulse tension is high, of nitroglycerin, are measures which
will be found efficacious.
I n the worry and strain of modern life arterial degenera-

11
tion is not only very common, but develops often at a rela-

tively early age. For this I believe that the high pressure at
which men live, and the habit of working the machine to its
maximum capacity, are responsible, rather than excesses in
eating and drinking, or than any special prevalence of syphi-
lis. Angeio-sclerosis, creeping on slowly but surely, ‘(with no
pace perceived,” is the Nemesis through which Nature ex-
acts retributive justice for the transgression of her laws-
coming to one as an apoplexy, to another as an early Bright’s
disease, to a third as an aneurysm, and to a fourth as angina
pectoris, too often slitting “ the thin spun life ” in the fifth
decade, at the very time when success seems assured. No-
where do we see such an element of tragic sadness as in many
of these cases. A man who has early risen and late taken rest,
who has eaten the bread of carefulness, striving for success
in commercial, professional, or political life, after twenty-
five or thirty years of incessant toil reaches the point where
he can say, perhaps with just satisfaction, “ Soul, thou hast
much goods laid up for many years: take thine ease,” all un-
conscious that the fell sergeant has already issued the warrant.
How true to life is Hawthorne in the House of the Seven
Gables! To Judge Pyncheon, who had experienced a mere
dimness of sight and a throbbing at the heart-nothing more
-and in whose grasp was the meed for which he had ‘ L fought
and toiled and climbed and crept ’,; to him, as he sat in the
old oaken chair of his grandfathers, thinking of the crown-
ing success of his life, so near at hand, the avenger came
through the arteries.
(( With what strife and pains we come into the world we
know not, but it is commonly no easy matter to get out of it,”
Sir Thomas Browne says; and, having regard to the uncer-
tainties of the last stage of all, the average man will be of
Caesar’s opinion, who, when questioned at his last dinner party
CONCLUSION. 155
as to the most preferable mode of death, replied-" That

which is the most sudden." Against this, one in a string of
grievous calamities, we pray in the Litany, though De Quincy
insists that the meaning here is " unprepared." In this sense
sudden death is rare in angina pectoris, since the end comes
but seldom in the first paroxysm. Terrible as are some of
these incidental conditions accompanying coronary artery
lesions, there is a sort of kindly compensation, as in no other
local disease do we so often see the ideal death-death like
birth " a sleep and a forgetting.,'
APPENDIX.
NOTE A.-ROUCTONON’SCLAIM (PAGE 6).
WHILE these lectures were in course of publication in the

New York Medical Journal I had the following explanatory
letter from Professor Gairdner, which it is only due to- him to
publish :
225 ST,VINOENT
STREET, Sept. 23,1896.
GLASGOW,
MY DEAR OSLER:I have only to-day had my attention
directed to your most interesting lectures on angina pectoris in
the New York Medicnl Journal, and while appreciating them
very much, I must confine my remarks to one point at present,
on which I have no doubt you will desire to have my opinion
inasmuch as you have formally indicated your own as differing.
(Page 178, column 8, as to the case of M. Charles.)
The cause of the difference, however, is this: I was curions
to see the original paper of Rougnon, and when in Pans made
sb special inquiry after it, in vain, toth in the Bibliothhque Na-
tionale, and in the library of the Ecole de MQdecine(I think).
I afterward engaged M. Lereboullet in the search, and he was
kind enough t o hunt up for me what he thought to be the only
copy accessible after considerable research (I think it was at
Besanqon, but am not sure). He further was good enough to
copy, or get copied, for me all that he thought essential in the
paper, and sent it over with the remark that he could find noth-
ing like A. P. in it. To me it was just the same, but as I unfor-
tunately mislaid his extract I could not precisely refer to it in
writing to the Lancet.
157
You have been more fortunate in finding what I can not help
supposing to be a quite different document in your marvelous
library at Washington. I can only plead that my remarks applied
quite correctly to the extract sent to me, and I should be glad
if this were made clear, though I can not now fully explain it.
Have you any idea, in America, as to the proper pronuncia-
tion of angina? For years I always pronounced it with the i
long, and never once heard it otherwise till Dr. Houghton, of
Dublin, pulled me up. I then made an elaborate inquiry into
the classical authorities, and found that it comes out apparently
clearly that the i is short, as in the test passage in Plautus’s
Trinummus, which has been annotated, so my colleague Pro-
fessor Ramsey tells me. Is it worth while to make the change?
In haste,
Yours very truly, W. T. GAIRDNER.
NOTE B.-THE CASE OF MR. MATTHEW ARNOLD (PAGE 25).
Matthew Arnold, the distinguished son of Dr. Thomas

Arnold, died suddenly on Sunday afternoon, April 15, 1888,
in his sixty-sixth year. The various stages in the progress of
his disease are well given in his letters. The first intimation
we have of any trouble is in a letter to his son, dated May, 1885:
“I have been having a horrid pain across my chest, and on
Friday mamma carried me to Andrew Clark, who has put me
on the strictest of diets for one week-no medicine, but soup,
sweet things, fruit, and, worst of all, all green vegetables
entirely forbidden, and my liquors confined to one small half
glass of brandy with cold water at dinner. I am to see how this
suits me. He thinks the pain is not heart, but indigestion.
At present I feel very unlike lawn tennis, as going fast or going
uphill gives me the sense of having a mountain on my chest;
luckily, in fishing, one goes slow and stands still a great deal.”
To his daughter about the same time he writes: “ I can not
get rid of the ache across my chest when I walk; imagine my
having to stop half a dozen times in going up to Pains Hill!
What a mortifying change! But so one draws t o one’s end.”
On August 26th he writes to his wife from Wales: “ On the
APPENDIX. 159
whole, I did more yesterday, and did it easier, than I have done
since I was first visited by this pain.”
On January 11, 1886, in a letter to his daughter, he writes:
‘‘I got on very well, and the skating did not bring on the chest
pain; smooth motion does not, but laborious motion-making
my way uphill or through snow.”
During his second visit to America in 1886 he had a very
narrow escape from drowning. ‘‘ The accident was nothing; a
wave carried me heavily against a taut rope under water, put
there for the safety of bathers; but the shock exhausted me
rather, and was followed by a week or so of troublesome attacks
of pain across the chest.”
On November 27th of the same year he writes to his
daughter: “ I am quite my old self again-walked about Lon-
don all yesterday in the fog without choke and pain.”
On December 2 2 4 in a letter to Professor Norton, he writes:
“If I go too quick I am stopped by a warning i n my chest;
but I can go about as much as I like if I go leisurely, and I have
no attacks of sharp pain. There were some nights in America
when I thought that my ‘grand climacteric ’-an epoch in life
which I used to hear a great deal of from my dear mother-
would see the end of me; and I think, by the way you looked
at me once or twice at Ashfield, you thought so too.”
In a letter to Mrs. Coates, January 29, 1887, he wrote: (‘One
should try to bring one’s self to regard death as a quite natural
event, and surely in the case of the old it is not difficult t o do
this. For my part, since I was sixty I have regarded each year,
as it ended, as something to the good beyond what I could natu-
rally have expected. This summer in America I began to think
that my time was really coming to an end. I had so much pain
in my chest, the sign of a malady which had suddenly struck
down in middle life, long before they came to my present age,
both my father and grandfather.”
In a letter to Professor Norton he again refers to the “bad
attacks of pain while I was with you, the worst I had in America,
the worst I have ever had.”
There are no further references, and we know that he went
down to Liverpool to meet the steamer Aurania, and on Sun-
day afternoon, April 15, 1888, died suddenly in his sixty-sixth

year, about three years after the first manifestations of angina.
NOTE, C.-RETENTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS AFTER APPARENT

CESSATION OF HEART’S ACTION (PAGE 55).
A very remarkable fact in certain cases of angina is the per-

sistence of consciousness, with the ability to engage in con-
versation and even to walk, after pulsations have ceased at the
wrist, or even after the heart beats can no longer be felt. Dr.
Macrae, of Council Bluffs, has sent me notes of the following
remarkable instance of the kind. A physician who had been
the subject of angina, while waiting for Dr. I)lacrae in his re-
ception room, was seized with an attack. “ When I came into
the room he was unconscious, with his head dropped over the
back of the chair. He was pulseless; no cardiac sound could be
heard. He regained consciousness and, with my assistance,
walked into the other room and lay upon the lounge. Careful
examination again failed to reveal any cardiac movements. He
was not in pain, was sensible, but seemingly dazed. He asked
me whether his heart had ceased action. I told him it had. He
gave a short loving message to his wife, ejaculated, ‘ Lord have
mercy on me! ’ became unconscious, and died then in a few sec-
onds. He must have lived at least five minutes after I found
him. When laid on the lounge he burst into a most profuse
perspiration, and breathing was somewhat labored. The point
I wish to make is that he lived, was rational, could almost walk
by himself, and talked for several minutes after his heart, so
far as could be determined, had ceased to beat.” I n Case XXIII
I was very much impressed by this retention of complete con-
sciousness and capability of engaging in conversation when the
pulse at the wrist could not be felt.
THE END.

Jtptunimus GDL Hadiharton 6743 2 Babii

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Jtptunimus GDL Hadiharton 6743 2 Babii

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Jtptunimus GDL Hadiharton 6743 2 Babii

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

L E C T U R E S ON

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL C 'OF PHYSICIANS, LONDON

W. T. GAIRDNER, M.D., F.R.S.,

Dear Dr. Gairdner :

THESElectures were delivered to the graduate class in

History of the recognition of angina,-Heberden, Rougnon, Norgagni.

Incidence of the disease.-Station in life.-Sex.-Age.-Epidemic in-

Exciting causes.-Symptoms.-State of heart and pulse.-Pericarditis,

I. Syncope anginosa.-11. Thc Adams-Stokes syndrome,-111. Angins

I. Neurotic group : (a) Hysterical and neurasthenic cases ; (b) Angins

Anomalous cases of heart pain.-Elements in the diagnosis of true

THEhistory of the recognition of the disorder known as an-

lar, have no shortness of breath, from which it is totally dif-

Baron's L i f e of Jenner, London, 1827.

anybody who had written on the subject, I concluded that we

subject I need not enlarge upon, therefore shall just remark

* Parry. An. Inquiry i n l o the S p p t o m s and Causes of IheSyncope

* Lettre d M. Lorry sur une rnaladie nouvelle. Besangon, 1768.

the cartilages. H e confesses, however, that the condition was

angina pectoris in M. Rougnon’s letter.” * The suddenness

“ A lady, forty-two years of age, who for a long time had

* Lancet, 1891, i, p. 604.

It is a letter to Dr. Heberden from a man who signs himself

Angina pectoris is not a disease, but a syndrome or symp-

which is acknowledged to be only a symptom, or, as it has been

* Forbes’s edition of Laennec, fourth edition, p. 650.

or descending ramus. Note particularly the branches of the

* Journal of Experimental Mediche, vol. i, No. 1, 1896.

thirty-five, who had aortic insufficiency, with dyspncea and

trinsic nerves of the organ. Doubtless some of you have seen

BTIOLOQY. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF T H E DISEASE.

Incidence of the disease.-Station in life.-Sex.-Age.-Epidemic influences.

INCIDENCE OF THE DISEASE-AS noted long ago by Sir

many cases of heart pain of various sorts, there have been

tendant rather of ease and luxury than of temperance and

Huchard give in two hundred and thirty-seven cases of true

* Journal d. pract. Heilkunde, 1823, lvii.

spondents-&., that during the illness of Mr. Sumner, and

three generations. There are remarkable instances on record.

At the time of his death, the accounts which appeared in

* Medical Cvmmpnfnries, 1785, ix.

Cazanave de la Roche * records three cases in one family-a

*La Tribune midicale, 1895,p. 832.

group. The frontispiece in Balfour’s work on the heart (sec-

* D u b l i ~Medical Journal, 1890, vol. lxxxix.

I saw on several occasions in Toronto a medical friend who,

influenza with much fever and prostration. I n the latter part

HEARTDISEASE.-Paroxysms of agonizing substernal

to bear in mind the common complaint of pain beneath the

* Verhandlungen des Congresses f.innere Bediein, Bd. x.

my list, in four only was the physical examination negative;

++ Virchow's Archiv, Bd. XXY.

in full health, in the prime of life, may be seized with a parox-

The following is Latham’s account: *

* Latham’s Works, vol. i, p. 453; New Sydenham Society, 1876. See

I n no case in my series did death occur in the first paros-

38 ANGINA PECTORIS AND ALLIED STATES.

shop. He was able, however, t o proceed on his journey. While