Page:The Harveian oration 1905.djvu/101

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THE HARVEIAN ORATION.
97

a particular kind; and the so-called Nauheim or Schott treatment, which consists in the combined use of certain baths and resistant exercises. The baths and exercises may also be employed separately. That one or other of these methods may be of conspicuous service in suitable cases, both of organic and functional affections of the heart and vessels, cannot for a moment be questioned; but experience has convinced me that they are not uncommonly practised injudiciously, to say the least, and on no intelligible grounds, and I have known them lead to serious consequences. While their employment is guided by certain recognised principles, it must be left to individual discretion and conscientious, judgment to determine how far either of them is applicable to any particular case.

3. The learned Harveian Orator last year brought prominently under our notice the great importance of prolonged rest as a therapeutic measure in cases of acute endocarditis. Not only do I cordially endorse his opinion, but I take this opportunity of enforcing and emphasising the essential value of rest, either temporary or permanent, according to circumstances, with attention to posture, in the treatment of many cardiac complaints, both functional and organic. I venture to submit that not uncommonly this method is far preferable to the more active measures just referred to, and I do not think that its beneficial effects are as generally recognised or