Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1876 — The Heart. [ARTICLE]

The Heart.

From a recent review of Rev. Dr. Houghton’s experiments regarding the muscular force exerted by the human heart, we condense as follows: The heart is composed of innumerable muscular fibers, arranged like two balls of twine, each with a cavity in its center, and both completely enveloped in a third ball. These fibers are, however, not continuous as in the case oi twine wound in a ball, but work independently. By calculating the force exerted by these fibers when either contracted or extended, and expressing the result in “ foot tons” that is the force required to lift a ton to the height of one foot—it appeal’s that the daily work of the left ventricle alone, which lifts at each stroke three ounces of blood through a height of 9,923 feet, is equal to about 89,703 foot-tons. Estimating the relative power of the rightventricle to that of the left in the proportion of five to thirteen, the total daily work ofboth is 724,208 foot-tons. Although the average weight of the heart is about 9.36 ounces, the work done by it in a given time exceeds that accomplished by all other muscles exercised in a boat race during the same period. Helmholz, the German physicist, proved that the heart could raise its own weight 20,280 feet in an hour, while the best locomotive engine could only raise its own weight 2,700 feet in the same time. An active climber, with the full exercise of all the needed muscles, could only accomplish 9,000 feet in nine hours, or one-twentieth the work done by the heart.