Observations on the effects of exercise on the temperature and circulation / by C. Handfield Jones.

  • Charles Handfield Jones
Date:
[1873]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the effects of exercise on the temperature and circulation / by C. Handfield Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/12 page 375
    as showing how excessive expenditure of force may generate a condition of high but transitory fever. My own results, so far as the temperature alone is concerned, are little more than confirmatory of those of others ; but the records of the tracings, and of the variations in the cardiac force which were noted at the same time, may add something to their value. The observations detailed in the accompanying Tables were made on thirteen males, in average good health, during winter or spring weather, about the same hour, 8-10 p.m. The age of I. was 53-54, of II. 36, of VIII. 38, of the others 16 to 26. All bore the exertion well, except IV., who vomited, and was rather prostrate for a short time after. The exercise consisted of a smart run for a mile or two. I have de¬ scribed the sphygmometer with which I measured the force of the pulse in the ‘Medical Times and Gazette,’ 1871, vol. ii. p. 183. After the run the pulse-rate was generally first observed, then the force necessary to compress the radial artery, then the tracing was taken, and lastly the temperature. Wherever the pressure employed in taking the tracing is not stated, it is to be understood that the same was employed before and after the run. The result of the Sphygmometer observations was sufficiently constant to indicate the effect generally produced, or tending to be produced, by hard exercise. In eight out of the thirteen cases the artery was com¬ pressed by a less force after than it had been before the exercise. The difference in I. was represented by 100 grammes, in III. by 48, in IV. by 112, in V. by 123 (about), in VII. by 56, in VIII. by 116, in X. by 376, in XI. by 100. These figures may be considered to represent the diminution of the force exerted by the left ventricle. The amount of the arterial contraction existing at the time of each observation is perhaps in some measure concerned in the result, but is*, I believe, a factor of far less importance than the cardiac contraction. This opinion is borne out by a reference to the tracings of VI., which indicate considerable arterial constriction before the run, and but little after; yet the sphygmometer result is almost the same in both periods. In four instances, II., IX., XII. , XIII., the above relation was reversed; the force of the cardiac contraction appeared to be greater after than before the exercise. I can be sure, I think, that this did not depend on erroneous observation. The excess in II. was 56 grammes, in IX. nearly 200, in XII. 30, in XIII. 110 grammes. As these were vigorous individuals, it does not seem improbable that the exercise, which lasted only some ten or fifteen minutes, might excite the heart rather than exhaust it; yet the tracings of II. and IX. do not bear out this view. These four instances seem to me very important, as demonstrating, what might have been suspected on other grounds, how necessary it is to apply the dynamic test in judging of the validity of the circulatory organs. It is not the amount of the force put forth by the heart at a given moment, or the correctness of - the
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