is shortness of breath, not necessarily very rapid breathing or panting, but inability to "get your wind" on moderate exertion. But heart failure, remember, does not mean the awful end the coroner too often mentions in his report when the actual cause of death is a matter of surmise. It means a gradual loss of efficiency in a heart damaged by disease of any kind, such as valvular distortions resulting from former tonsillitis, quinsy, so-called "rheumatism," or neglected teeth, or a fatty degeneration of the heart muscle from prolonged indulgence in alcohol, for example.
A man subject to heart failure is always aware that he has lost his former "pep," that he is no longer able to do his former physical or mental work without being abnormally fatigued, that his health is below par, that he has "dyspepsia" or "gas" or some other more or less constant trouble which a healthy man has no business entertaining. If disaster finally overtakes him—and it certainly does not in the majority of cases of heart disease—it is only because he has failed to undergo an annual physical examination.
It was just observed that heart disease does not prove fatal in the majority of cases. Ninety percent of all victims of heart disease die like the rest of us, from every day preventable diseases like pneumonia, Bright's disease and typhoid fever. And the very few who do succumb suddenly are far outnumbered by the victims of sudden death from apoplexy, uremia, shock and poison. Many a coroner's case of "heart failure" would prove to be one of these conditions if the truth were sought by a complete  Post-mortem investigation. 