The Weight of the Normal Heart in Adult Males *

In 1936 an anthropometric survey of individuals coming to autopsy in this laboratory was inaugurated, the basic data consisting of linear and circumferential body measurements and organ weights. The general purpose of this study was to determine whether definite disease entities could be correlated with differences in physical constitution, but the specific problem under consideration was the question of body type as related to cardiovascular disease. Previously, Pearl and Ciocco' and Ciocco' had found that cardiacs and non-cardiacs differed significantly with respect to physical constitution, as determined by measurements taken on the living individual. It seemed possible that the more extensive anthropometric observations obtainable on autopsy material might enable us to amplify previous conclusions regarding the relationship between physical constitution and disease. In this connection, a review of the data already available in the departmental protocols was made in order to define the limits of variability of the weight of the normal heart and the factors related to such variability. This preliminary survey forms the basis of the present report. The weight of the normal heart has received comparatively little attention from earlier investigators. Bardeen,2 summarizing data collected by several different observers, conduded that at all ages except at and immediately after birth the relation of heart weight to body weight is approximately 0.55 per cent in males, while in females the heart is slightly lighter, the relation to body weight being 0.53 per cent. The earliest biometric survey of heart weight was made in 1904 by Greenwood,4 who found the average weight of the healthy heart in 699 adult males of from 25 to 55 years of age to be 345 grams. He noted a significant but very low positive correlation between heart weight and age, and concluded that the average healthy heart gains about 10 grams in 10 years, the regression equation being 305+1.0 (age). However, reasoning that "the healthy heart is on the average much smaller than the heart in