Abstract
Ludiwg has said that the discovery of blood
pressure was more important than that of circulation.
Debatable though this statement way be, the
fact remains that blood pressure is a physiological
phenomenon of supreme importance. Its position
in medical science requires no emphasis. Its
vital importance to the pregnant woman, where,
with or without a concomitant alburninuria, it is
a premonition of impending clampsia, the role it
plays in nephritis, the persistent hypotension of
Addison's disease, and its importance in shock,
to mention but a few instances, are established
facts of such common knowledge that they require
no reiteration.
The relation of blood pressure to health is
fundamental, for a circulation without a pressure
is a physical impossibility and without circulation
there could be no life. I t is long since
Insurance Companies, particularly in America,
have realised that blood pressure is a factor of
utmost importance in estimating the expectancy of
life. With their insistence on the estimation
of blood pressure in every candidate who presents
himself for life insurance, figures for the
systolic and diastolic arterial pressures in healthy
adults have accumulated till their number is
almost legion.
Statistics in the case of bloody pressure, in
children, though fairly numerous, fall far short
of those for adults. It is only in recent years
that the arterial pressures in children have received
the attention they merit. Wordsworth sang "The
Child is Father of the Man" and in that line lies
a wealth of truth, physiological, as well as
psychological. and moral. Indeed, it is most
probable that from the child shall come the
explanation of many of the difficulties and
problems, that surround that bête noir of the
general practitioner, namely hypertension.
It is necessary and essential, that, first a
study should be made of the arterial blood pressure
of the child, to determine such points as, the
influence of heredity, the influence cf diets
of varying composition as regards their protein,
fat, and carbohydrate content, the after effects,
if any, of the diseases of childhood, and the
influence of exercise, in-sufficient, moderate
or excessive. Constitutional tendencies, or
diatheses must by recognised early if they are
to be successfully opposed.
