Littell's Living Age/Volume 176/Issue 2279/Curious Observations on the Growth of the Heart

Curious Observations on the Growth of the Heart — Dr. Benecke, of Marburg has made known his curious observations on the growth of the human heart, the fact appearing that the increase is greatest and most rapid during the first and second years of life, its bulk at the end of the second year being exactly double what it originally was; between the second and seventh years it is again almost doubled. A slower rate of growth now sets in, until about the fifteenth year, the augmentation of volume during the intervening seven or eight years being only about two-thirds. In the period of maturity which now approaches the growth of the heart again makes progress, the increase keeping pace with the advance toward maturity of the other portions of the system. After the fifteenth year, up to the fiftieth, the annual growth is about ˙061 of a cubic inch, the increase ceasing with the fiftieth year, a slight diminution then ensuing. Again, in childhood the male and female heart are alike; after maturity, the male heart develops more than the female, and the difference between the two that is thus established — one and a half to two cubic inches — is said to be maintained throughout the remainder of life.