only by proper tests. In other words, if the diastolic pressure is
lowered the heart will be relieved. On the other hand, if the
diastolic is being raised by an increased venous pressure from a
failing heart, digitalis, strychnin and caffein may be of benefit in
lowering the diastolic as well as raising the systolic. However, if
there is a high systolic and a low diastolic pressure, vasodilators
are often contraindicated.


TREATMENT

In this rapid high tension age the physician should be as energetic
in teaching prevention of arterial hypertension as he is in
preventing contagion. As infectious diseases are reduced in
frequency, more patients live to die of diseases later in life, and
(as previously stated) diseases with hypertension are on the
increase. It is therefore the duty of the physician to urge youths
and adults to abstain from all kinds of excesses so common in this
age. We live at such speed, even the children, that this caution is
almost daily needed. We must caution against severe athletic
competition, against personal "stunts," against recreation excesses,
even golfing, automobiling and dancing, against excess in the use of
tobacco, in eating, in late dinners, in coffee, tea and alcohol. We
must take better care of patients during their convalescence from
some serious illness lest they have circulatory debility by becoming
strenuous too soon after their recovery. The pregnant woman must be
more carefully watched, not only for her own sake, but also for the
sake of her child. Intestinal indigestion, while not the cause of
all disturbances that occur in man after 40, is still an important
element in his deterioration and degeneration, and it should be