For twenty years continuously this method has been carried out. The
results have been striking. The comparative absence of permanent heart
disease after endocarditis has been in marked contrast to its frequency
prior to the adoption of the treatment by rest. So striking indeed is
the change that I confess it now seems to me that it would be an immoral
act on my part to omit these measures in any recent case of endocardial
disease.
If we make it a rule to watch carefully for incipient valvulitis and if,
when we find it, we secure for the heart prolonged rest, I believe that
it is in our power to diminish, in a most material degree, the frequency
of chronic valvular disease of the heart.