physical strain. But the most important preventive of all is "bed,"
of which fourteen days must be enforced on the least premonition of
anginal pain.


_Pseudo-angina_.--In connexion with angina pectoris, a far more common
condition must be mentioned that has now universally received the
name of pseudo-angina. This includes the praecordial pains which very
closely resemble those of true angina. The essential difference lies
in the fact that pseudo-angina is independent of structural disease
of the heart and coronary arteries. In true angina there is some
condition within the heart which starts the stimulus sent to the nerve
centres. In pseudo-angina the starting-point is not the heart but
some peripheral or visceral nerve. The impulse passes thence to the
medulla, and so reaching the sensory centres starts a feeling of pain
that radiates into the chest or down the arm. There are three main
varieties:--(1) the reflex, (2) the vaso-motor, (3) the toxic. The
reflex is by far the most common, and is generally due to irritation
from one of the abdominal organs. An attack of pseudo-angina may be
agonizing, the pain radiating through the chest and into the left arm,
but the patient does not usually assume the motionless attitude of
true angina, and the duration of the seizure is usually much longer.
The treatment is that of the underlying neurosis and the prognosis is
a good one, sudden death not occurring.



ANGIOSPERMS. The botanical term "Angiosperm" ([Greek: angeion],
receptacle, and [Greek: sperma], seed) was coined in the form
Angiospermae by Paul Hermann in 1690, as the name of that one of