(systolic, diastolic rate), to be 20,000 mm. of mercury per minute.

Katzenstein [Footnote: Katzenstein: Deutsch. med. Wehnsehr., April
15, 1915.] finds, after ten years of experience, that the following
test of the heart strength is valuable: He records the blood
pressure and pulse, and then compresses the femoral artery at
Poupart's ligament on the two sides at once. He keeps this pressure
up for from two to two and one-half minutes, and then again takes
the blood pressure. With a sound heart the blood pressure will be
higher and the pulse slower than the previous record taken. If the
blood pressure and pulse beat are not changed, it shows that the
heart is not quite normal, but not actually incompetent. When the
blood pressure is lower and the pulse accelerated, he believes that
there is distinct functional disturbance of the heart and loss of
power, relatively to the change in pressure and the increase of the
pulse rate. He further believes that a heart showing this kind of
weakness should, if possible, not be subjected to general
anesthesia.

Stange [Footnote: Stange: Russk. Vrach, 1914, xiii. 72.] finds that
the cardiac power may be determined by a respiratory test as
follows: The patient should sit comfortably, and take a deep
inspiration; then he should be told to hold his breath, and the
physician compresses the patient's nostrils. As soon as the patient
indicates that he can hold his breath no longer, the number of
seconds is noted. A normal person should hold his breath from thirty
to forty seconds without much subsequent dyspnea, while a patient
with myocardial weakness can hold his breath only from ten to twenty
seconds, and then much temporary dyspnea will follow. Stange does
not find that pulmonary conditions, as tuberculosis, pleurisy or