Angina pectoris / by G. A. Gibson.

  • Gibson George Alexander, 1854-1913.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Angina pectoris / by G. A. Gibson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    investigations of Engelmann, Hoorweg and Einthoven, which have added new lustre to the ancient universities which they have adorned, and the illuminating clinical researches of Stokvis, Wenckebach and van den Bergh, which have crowned )mur medical schools with imperishable laurels. Above all, my friendly relations with your own distinguished teacher render my appearance on this occasion particularly gratifying. The subject to which my attention has been requested for this lecture is angina pectoris, especially in the light of some recent extensions of our knowledge of the affection. Before entering upon the consideration of the subject, let me mention the singular fact that angina pectoris appears to be much less common in the Netherlands than in the British Isles. Professor' Wenckebach informs me that this is the case as regards every] variety of the condition. It is not easy to account for this difference in distribution. The inhabitants of the two countries are certainly blood relations in a very close degree. Both! nations are endowed with a great amount of energy, mental and physical, and their habits are not widely dissimilar. Tin use of tobacco is at least as great on the east side of the Nortl^ sea as on the west, and the inhabitants of both countries imbib( freely of alcohol ; it seems to me, nevertheless, that in tin abuse of alcohol my countrymen are greater enemies thai you are, especially north of the Tweed, where—to borrow th( sardonic phrase of rough old Samuel Johnson^—the peoph are “ without skill in inebriation.” ® In saying this, I ai undoubtedly in antagonism to the opinion expressed by tin ingenuous Burton.* Nevertheless, it seems to me that thj opinion which has just been expressed is correct. Agaii in both countries hard work is the general rule. Possibli the strenuous life has more followers in the United Kingdoi than in the Netherlands. When we give full weight to a] these considerations, it must be allowed that no sufficiei ' Boswell: The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Edit. 1826. London. Vol. Ip p. 370. It is probable that the oppressive sumptuary regulations, under which labour in our northern kingdom, have much to do with the deplorable resuf which we see, and it cannot be gainsaid that recent experiences in the Modej Athens prove that the extent of drunkenness, with its attendant evils, is dire proportional to the stringency of our licensing laws. = The Anatomy of Melancholy, viii. Edit. 1676. London. Part I., section| number 2, subsection 2, p. 44.