SELECTED ABSTRACTS 631

the immediate mortality was 7.2 per cent. Fifty-two of these patients .are living at

the present time. There was no immediate mortality in patients whose attacks oc-

curred hefore age forty years. The immediate mortality increased gradually from

ages forty to eighty years. Initial attacks occurred almost twice as frequently dur-

ing the winter as during the summer months. Il. MCC.

Schwarz, Hans G.: Concerning the Power of the Heart in Severe Congenital In-

volvement. Ztschr. f. Kreislaufforsch. 28: 385, 1936.

A case report is presented of an eleven-year-old child with severe congenital heart

disease. Auricular fibrillation developed following pneumonia, but this lung infec-

tion led to no other evidence of damage to the heart. L. N. 1~.

Summerfeldt, Pearl: Some Problems in Heart Disease in Childhood. Canad. M.

A. J. 35: 165, 1936.

The author reviews the experiences of cardiac children at the Hospital for Sick

Children in Toronto. The findings in this study are similar to those made in studies

elsewhere. Emphasis is placed on the importance of respiratory and tonsil infection

in relation to the etiology of rheumatic fever and heart disease.

H. McC.

Priedmann, R.: The Influence of Cardiac Valvular Disease Upon the Duration of

Life. Ztschr. f. klin. Med. 130: 382, 1936.

The study is a numerical survey of the death rates of 1,164 patients with

rheumatic valvular disease seen in the heart station in Vienna between June, 1!11!1,

and January, 1935. Analysis IS made according to age, various types of valvular

lesion, and size of heart. Comparison with the general death rate for Austria is

given, and several interesting facts are se t forth: most important among which are

that (1) for all types of valvular disease together the death rate is slightly more

than two and one-half times the general death rate, (2) combined mitral and aortie

disease has the highest mortality rate (3% times the general death rate), and (3)

aortic disease has the lowest mortality rate (less than twice the general death rate).

The highest death rate for all types of valvular disease together occ.urrcd in the

fifth decade (4% times the general death rate).

Many other more detailed comparisons are made. Two others deserve mention.

The author cannot confirm the statements that the highest. death rate is in the second

a,nd third decades following the rheumatic groups of infections; from his figures he

decides that death rate depends rather upon the age of the patient. He aiso found

that the duration of life becomes rapidly less with increase in size of the heart.

J. M. S.

Parhon, C. I., and Ornstein, J.: Preventive Treatment of Arteriosclerosis and Atheromatosis. Schweiz. med. Wchnschr. 65: 1164, 1935.

Arterial hypertension and hypercholesterolemia are two inconteetable factors

in the development of arteriosclerosis and atheromatosis. There is sufficient clinical and experimental basis for considering that certain endocrine dysfunctions are definitely associated with alterations in the blood cholesterol, namely, diseases of

the ovaries, suprarenals, and thyroid gland. In exophthalmie goiter the mean level of the blood cholesterol is 161 mg. for each 100 cc. of blood, in simple goiter it

Eberhard, T. P.: Effect of Alcohol on Cholesterol-Induced Atherosclerosis in Rabbits. Arch. Path. 21: 616 1936.

‘I’llrOugll 0lJserration Of the rffcct of itlCUllCl1 i’er Si’ 011 the 1:rbIJit fill chOlestc~ro1,

the author hoped to shed sumc light on the widely held inllwzwion that tlrunkartls

do not show so much arteriosclerosis for given age groups as do temperate persons.

‘I’liu cholesterol of tlw blood rose more rapidly and to higher levels in those

animals which ingestetl both ~uhstances than in those which received cholesterol alone.

‘t‘he tleposit.ion of cholesterol in the tissues of liver and aorta, howewr, nceurrell in

mt t’rw 121 in to the 1~111011 ~igurw;.

1‘. IL JI.

Haythorn, S. R., Taylor, F. A.. Crago, H. W., and Burrier, A. Z.: Comparative Chemical and Histological Examinations of Aortas for Calcium Content. Am.

.r. PiLth. 12: t’83, I!UCi.

11s :i result. of careful chenGa1 ileteI3llin:itions uf metallic r7~lcium ii1111 wiero

chemical studies for visible calcium on fifty-t,no aortas from patients of varying ages,

the authors found a consistent ixwrenso of calcium in aortas of patients beyond

middle age in esc~ss of that of other body tissues.

Van Kopsa ?s silver method wits found the most satisfacturq- microswpic indicator

of the comparative amounts of calcium in wlcr~~tic lesions.

The heaviest calcium tleposits ~erc in thf, aiJdomina1 porti(lu. PGtive micros scopic tests began at the age of forty ~KUS and were 100 ller c(snt positive in thl>

specimens from pticnts betwcm sixty-in, x nnJ seventy years of age.

Mild intimal lesions lil;~y wcur wifhollt ally incressc in wlcirlm by c-hemicai

~,I,:,IyHIS. 1,. H. 11.

Hallock, Phillip: Arteriosclerosis in Young Diabetics. A Method for Its Recogni-

tion by Arterial Elasticity Measurements. .4n1. .I. 111. SC. 192: 371. 1936.

‘rhe 1,&c-wave velocity methoti was utilized in studying arterial elasticity in

tile large ant1 medium sized arteries of twenty-two young diabetics. To test the

significance of the pulse-wave veloritieh obtained in this study the well-known Chi-

square test was employed. While the values for t,he transmiGon of the aortir

1~~1lsc waye clid not indicate any signiiiwnt c*llanges from the n~lrirlal, tllusl~ for tlltb

tranrnrission “1: the radial pulse w:Iye \ycr(~ ~lclinitely significant.

‘I‘ll<* diabetic state t:itIlcr initiates earlp, or :\cl~rler:ttes the tlcveluplllent of l,ren1:l-

t !,I<‘, :~rtcriosclrroais in tlw young adult. A5lTfOli.