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HOW CJ S £ ™ -.ZFt \ toi dMCK Of fro , Prince Oscar, Terrified by the Black-Faced African Turcos, Collapsed in a Fainting Fit and Is Now an Invalid with Paralysis of the Vagus Nerve and Heart Complications THE latent rahle bulletin:' of the con dition of Prince Oscar give tho Im pression that the Kaisers fifth eon Is not likely ever to resume his duties at the German battle front. Partial paraly sis of the yagus nerve, one of whoso functions Is to regulate the heart's action, 1r stated to be the final diagnosis of the young prince's malady. This, the medical authorities explain, is why the Prince did not speedily re cover from tho mental shock and heart weakness which left him unconscious among his slain officers on tho battle field. Hi. condition is described as «o gr.ti> that recovery is more than doubt ful. The mishap to the young German prince U interest to the medical profession, it i ■ unusual in some respects because It i xlt u; • tne '(implicated and far reaching and perhaps permanent effects ol a great i t P. is now apparently evident that hi was literally overcome and his nerves paralyzed by terror at the onrush of the him k faced Turcos when they had slain all the other officers of his regiment. He fell unconscious in a faint, and that was all that saved him from Turco bayonets, as they believed him to ho dead. The medical history of this case explains how a person may actually be "Beared almost to death." It was on September 24 at Verdun that Prince Oscar was with his regiment In a desperate charge upon the enemy. The Prince, much excited, was with the ad vancing column, shouting at Ihn top of his voice. This particular charge was BUeceasful, but not until Turco sharp shooters hidden In tree-tops had picked off every officer of tin regiment except tho Prince himself. Hight at this critical moment, when the young Prince mov that he alone among the officers sttl.l lived, the murderous looking Africans charged. Prince Oscar •—who is uu:y r.w•■uty-aix years old —had reached the limit of his endurance of such horrors He dropped, fainting, among ills ala in comrades. When the 'rinee wa •• discovered to be etill alive hi \vi m ihed to a hospital in Metz, where hear! weakness, induced by excitement ami overexertion on the bat tlefield, was the diagnosis. The Kaiser forthwith bestowed upon him the Iron Cross, and in a telegram of congratula tions for the Prince and ills regiment wrote: "If wo have put the enemy to flight tn all directions, we owe It to that good old God of ours above." As mental shock rarely. If evsr, per manently disables a heart that was or Why You Can t Have Freckles and Be Unhealthy- " A. 8., M. A., M. D. (Johns Hopklno). OVlfi w.is an ancient poet of great wisdom. He know many things about th«> health a* well hr the feelings of mankind. HU rented lea, however, were often worse than the aliments ho aimed to euro. The tissues of crocodiles, sold he, are excellent to take freckles or ■pots from the fare nnd to whiten the skin. Ovid particularly advised those who are called “freckled faced” to to to Pharos. an island in the mouth of the Nile, bee a use crocodiles abounded there, "If swarthy, to the r: ar'an varnish flysane he. Ov'.j, 1, uever, had never been to Florida, where crocodile* and their colored cronies abound. So far no one ha* ever seen either the tears, tbe skin or the tripe of the Florida creatures chanter either the leopard'* epota or the Ethiopian's skin. Freckles, It lias been very recently Uetcrniluc-*, are the »vfcthervanes and ion ..nets of health. Each and •very freckle on jour face, science now finds, is an autograph nnd von oner for good vermilion blood and physically forthright tissues. A Ferocious Group of the Allies—With Machine Gun Supported by Two Dusky Sharpshooters. ganically sound, the Prlnre’B doctors ex pected that he would noon he able to re join his regiment. Then came reports of a more serious condition, and the Prince was removed to Hamburg, where his young wife could be at his side. From Hamburg he ivrote to tho widow of one of his slain officers a letter containing these pragraplis about his own experi ence: "Two minutes before his death 1 was with your husband In the front line of defense, lloth of us had, by God’s grace, come through a hellish lire, which lasted nil day. Wo were speaking together in the full lire of shells. Then your hus band left to try to force an advance in order to have a view over the hostile bat teries, w hich he wished to storm. "It was then he received the fatal shot and was called Into the Great Army. I was not able to follow further what, hap poned. as then I required to be assisted by two of my men on account of a heart attack, which I am endeavoring tc re cover from here at Hamburg under the caro of my dear wife.” But not even with such care did the Prince’s health Improve. The heart at tack took on a more and more serious as pect. At length came tho discovery that the cause of persistent heart weakness was partial paralysis of the vagus nerve the nerve whose sensory fibres control and regulate lung and heart action. It the Prince's heart hud been sound to be gin with, the controlling power of a healthy vagus nerve would have caused the chock symptoms to disappear very shortly. Hut when that name experience with the fierce Turcos of the. French army caused partial paralysis of tho va gus. the Prince's condition becomes grave indeed. Such a condition is so rare in medical practice that it naturally excites wide in terest. There is also much popular curi osity about the mysteries which surround the heart, and the tireless labor which it performs from birth to death and the perils of injury and disease which hearts, like every other vital organ, art sub ject -to. And now cornea tho added mystery of the vagus nerve, with Its overlord atti tude which the heart seems to fully rec ognize. What Is the vagus nerve, and how does it carry on this overlordship of the heart? Stripped ns much as possible of techni cal verbiage, here Is what the authorities ishv: . "The pneumogastrieior vagus nerve has an extraordinarily wide distribution and diversity of function. It rises from both a motor and a sensory nucleus located deep In the brain. Emerging from the tikull. It passes down the side of the neck and thence to the interior' Spaces of the True health la of n modest nature. It U no frleud to noisy, bumptious, fatty countenance or body. Freckles are the union jacks and fluttering flags of both bashfulness and health. To bo In good bodily vigor your dis position must be sunny, and a sunny disposition within is like n eun baked glow without. That Is. It brings out a multitude of freckles. In tine, the strength and power of vour body is in exact proportion to the number of freckles on your face. If you have your face nnd forehead nnd the hollows under your eyes pop]>ered and tattooed with freckles you may assure yourself that you have better health than those who have only a few. True enough, freckles, like dark complexions, often run tn families, too. This is to say. they are hereditary. But even when freckles come down to you as a rich Inheri tance from past generations they do not often appear until you roam abroad In green flelds and pastures new at the age of ten years. Moreover, freckles In families al ways crown wtih their golden glory, body, where It separates Into branches, which thus connect all the Important vital organs with the brain. "Motor fibres of the vagus go to the pharynx, larynx, bronchial tubes, oesoph agus, stomach, small intestines and spleen. Sensory-reflex fibres go to the lungs, heart, and stomach, and to all other organs which the vagus supplies with sensation. These reflex fibres / stimulate or inhibit the respiratory rhythm and the heart rhythm—regulate the work of the lungs and heart.” It Is only within the last few years that medical science has gained exact knowl edge of the heart’s share in the function* of the vagus, or pneumogastrie nerve. It had long been recognized as the “inhibi tory” nerve —that is, that its main func tion was to keep various vital organs of the human body from overdoing their al lotted tasks. Thus, stimulation of the vagus retards the normal action of the heart and lungs, while its partial paraly sis produces the opposite effect —like loos ening the brake on a revolving wheel. Hut to trace the anatomical extension of the vagus nerve to tne heart muscle is a comparatively recent achievement Af ter long, painstaking and minute observa tion, aided by a special electrical mech anism Invented for that purpose—one of which is in use at Bellevue Hospital, New York—it was discovered that tilts long sought connection was through the nerve’s sensory fibres. The human heart, like that of the lower animals, is provided with Its own inde pendent system of control. In the case of many of the lower animals this indepen dent control Is etirely adequate—the heart by Itself, dtsconected from the brain and general nervous system, Is a complete, self governing engine. In the case of hu man beings all the self-governing appar atus is there, but it has long since yielded important functions to the brain and Its communicating nerves. It is through this once adequate. Inde pendent apparatus that, the vagus nerve has been found to do its work. The sen sory fibre connection are with the heart's individual brain that used to do its work unaided. This still more or less active organ has the form of several little “bat terles” of brain stuff located on the upper external organism of the right auricle where this receiving chamber is entered by the two large veins from the lungs— the superior vena cava and the inferior vena cava The nerve extensions from the heart’s brain "batteries" to its muscle and valves upon whose rhythmic motion life depends-—are the terminal filaments of the cardiac branch of the controlling vagus nerve. It Is this connection which causes the heart to "Jump” and to temporarily accel erate Its beats when the brain receives a only the fair faces of the strong nnd health glowing youngsters. It Is also true that freckles are not disposed to show In brunettes and dark skinned members of such a tribe. There is a curious and prevalent mistake among many persons, name ly, that freckles are not the badges of bonny, good health, but something unattractive to the eye; something to be rid of. T'othing Is further from the new discoveries of science. These find ings. however, are. after all, only confirmatory of what most people have Instinctively felt. Whenever you glance intc the face of any freckle-faced youngster or fair maid yon are drawn to them hy the yellow pearls nnd tissue embroidered dots across the m>se and beneath the eyes. The frankness and innocence, purity and health that seem to go hand and hand w'th freckles have an unconscious appeal to all men which Is now explained for the first time. It Is. plainly, as experiments prove, the fascination of and desire which robust health creates. It was not known before, but all the sick, the ailing, and even the vigorous, have a blind force eternally driving them forward toward better and higher and healthier things. Freckles veiled In the fabric of the flesh make this curious appeal to every one. They are the textile mag nets that create r. longing In others; not only a craving to possess their possessors as a dear friend, associate and companion, but also as an in centive to work and conquest To be sure, you are not aware of this power of freckles; Indeed, your Impulse at first will be to utterly scoff It down. Furthermore, many a far from prtud owner of freckless will resent the Idea. They have the wrong Impression that freckles are unbecoming, unhcalthful. unromantle, and even shunned by many people. Actually what happens when the ten-vear-old youngster begins to have freckles Is that his fine tissues sur charged with ' hemoglobin”—the iron red stuff In your rod blood corpuscles are stirred to the unload ing point by the sun. Tfie Summer sue ;u?rttcu'nrly. tut the sun at all times of the year, to a lesser degree, tones up and electri fies a freckles “ferment” tn the Copyright. 1114. by tbe Star Company. Great Britain Bights Reserved. (A) Show the Location of the Little “Batteries” of Brain Stuff Through Which the Vagus Nerve Connects the Heart with the Brain. shock through the medium of any of the senses, or Is deeply disturbed by emo tions of anxiety, anger or fright. But it is an axiom of medical science that no mental shock or disturbing emotion is capable of creating persistent abnormal heart conditions. The heart that Is or ganically sound is not permanently In jured by any such means —not while the vagus nerve properly performs is “Inhibi tory” function. This comforting dictum Is so much an article of faith with heart specialists that when there Is persistent weakness, or when organic heart disease ensues after a mental shock, they assume that organic bounding channels of health. ‘This ‘■ferment" has not yet been caught, but its powers and effects are known. Just ns the eun stirs a “ferment" In green plants, which is connected in a way with the "chlorophyl” or green parts of vegetation, so Old Sol does the same to the red part of the blood. When there is an excess of this pigment it is seized hy the tissue units. These “cells" gobble up this pigment, and then apj>ears the brown, sepia, yellow, golden, gamboges, lemon or ptment. maxlxe, ochre, aureoiin, saffron, topaz, tawny, sul phur. amber, primrose, liver spotted or Claude tints nnd speckled areas In the face dubbed freckles. Scholars and pundits, pedants and dermatologists are not satisfied to call this pigmenetd period in the epidermis “freckles." so they have given them a high-sounding name, to wit “lentigo." The cheeks and the back of the hands sometimes are to be seen cov ered with freckles. Nay. even the arms, the back and the other parts of the body may have small and lightly tinted ones on them. Prince Oscar, Fifth Son of the Kaiser, Photographed , in the Uniform He Wore at the Battle Front. i trouble was already present, latent but ready to show itself In response to some more than normal strain. It la admitted that injury to the vagus nerve sufficient to rob it of its inhibitory power would eventually create organic disturbance In the heart, as well as in other vital organs which It keeps from overworking themselves. Its pulsations would be too rapid and lacking In regu larity. The patient’s own anxiety would exaggerate this condition. Under the strain the heart muscle would dilate and grow steadily weaker. The circulation would go from bad to worse—in fact. If the vagus were not restored to health the The disappearance of freckles Is usually a hnrbinger of ill health, de bility, weakness or approaching age. In soothe, these Imperial decorations of vitality, red blood and power tend to fade away as old age appears. Rarely, on the other hand, freckles begin not at ten years of age. but In grown-up life and In the Instances of unusual stamina, even in far-ad vanced years. The demand, however, for ways and means medicines and methods to be rid of freckles seems never to lessen. Of several thousand letters of Inquiry about health and happi ness, Inquiries as to how to be rid of freckles same next to the highest In number. It is a great mistake to try to ellmtnate these semaphores of physi cal supremacy. Moreover, to elimi nate freckles Is almost a hopeless task. A death-dealing Indoor life, tuber culosis-breeding rooms, poor food of bad quality, smallpox or any severs distemper, injuries or anything which might destroy and undermine the health will rid you of your freckles. Anything, in truth, which la not a jgyx-- .. jWPrajigjai^ Wmm I ' *‘'^l^yßGHß , % Wfp -., ■ •.. MHEISL - •yJSslfl^ j;lfv UzW&> . iafKS ~j££*«*» v ' ■■ v ' •>., ; *•: *■ «IP© : m&wWsM -^w Mr / . J/ f /*r J®#.. \r jfjjl •$ - Diagram of the Human Heart Showing the Interior of the Right Auricle and and Right Ventricle. The Circles patient would be In grave danger. It Is regarded is possible, but not likely, that any sudden emotion or mental shock, such a® would cause the heart tc beat faster or to “jump,” would cause paralysis or partial paralysis of the vagus nerve. But if the cabled reports about Prince Oscar are true, either his terrible experi ences upon the battlefield disabled the “inhibitory” nerve or he was already the victim of hidden organic heart weakness, which required the strain of some such experience to reveal Itself. The wife of Prince Oscar, In whose care he is at Hamburg, Is the heroine of the prettiest romance In the Kaiser’s family of six sons and one daughter. She was Countess Ina Marie von Bassewitz-Levit zow, maid of honor to the Empress. The beauty and amiability of the Countess en deared her to the German people, and her romance with the Kaiser's fifth son cre ated such enthusiasm that the Emperor at length decided to overlook the fact that she was not of royal blood. There being four lives between Prince Oscar and the German throne, and the chance of his ever succeeding being virtually non existent, the absurd morganatic marriage device was not considered. So the pretty Countess was permitted to become as truly the wife of a Prince Royal as though she had been royal herself. fraud, which will actually remove freckles reduces your fibres of physi cal superiority. There are a number of recom mendations which doctors are called upon to make to persistent persons who wish to be doing something to remove freckles. Most of these I shall mention with the warning, nevertheless, that they keep the skin peeling off over the top of the freckles —which are skin deep and not in the outer parts of the hide — until these would-be freckle ''curers” rush back again for help from the peeling. Among the most commonly used “freckle remover” sold by advertise ments as well as prescribed by doc tors Is a very weak, but still poison ous, solution of bichloride of mer cury. This, like the others, is ap plied to the face, which Is supposed to "peel” until the freckles come off. Peroxide of hydrogen, boric alcohol, carbonate of potash, benzoic acid, lemon peel and Juice of fruits, acetate of lead. salt, zinc and other 1 poisons are all recklessly recom mended for this purpose. All should be shunned, for they are dangerous.