The Pedestrian's Record

116 THE PEDESTRIAN'S RECORD. sometimes for the remainder of life restrictions to be imposed upon every kind of exercise requiring strong physical exertion. As the conduits for the passage of blood are sometimes involved in disease, so is the heart, the great pump of the body which is connected with them, the seat of disaster; rupture of a main conduit, like the aorta or of the heart itself, has been a cause of sudden death; but these mishaps fortunately are of rare occurrence, and happen to indolent persons quite as often as they do to men of activity. At the same time, diseases of the heart do occur to men whilst in training, and the cause is usually attributed to running : and it would seem that there was justice in the accusation, for the athlete after running well knows the feelings of oppression he experiences, and how long the cardiac palpitation continues afterwards, which is induced by the violent pumping action of the heart and the rapidity with which the functions of inspiration and expiration are effected. This violent action of the heart strains its walls, and im­ poses a vast amount of extra work upon its organism; and, moreover, impels the blood with unnatural rapidity through the blood-vessels, causing it to be somewhat erratic in its distribution, and thus the due balance of power between the arterial and venous circulation is disturbed. This undue stress forcing at one time too much blood, and at another too little, to the various organisms, and thus impairing their functions, syncope may result from the non-existence of sufficient blood to the brain, or congestion from its