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

  • Thomas Lewis
Date:
[1918]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

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

    10/164
    practice. In regard to electrocardiography, I would say that it has its value in elucidating irregularities on occasion, but that its indiscriminate use is much to be deplored. The medical officer can-do perfectly well without either electrocardiograph or polygraph ; we use both instruments at this hospital, but neither influences treatment or prognosis in one case in a hundred of the class with which we deal. Although the main subject matter relates to derangements, real or supposed, of the cardio-vascular system, and although the clinical observations have been undertaken chiefly upon and chiefly concern soldiers sent to hospital under such a diagnosis as 44 disordered action of the heart ” or 44 valvular disease of the heart,” yet if we are to reap the full benefit of our experiences during this war, these experiences are to be treated on a broader basis ; to possess them of permanent value they are to be correlated with the experiences of civilian life : if it is possible, it is important that some prognostic and therapeutic lessons be learnt which are of general application.