PULSE. 



185 



or about one-eighth of the mean frequency in 

 the male. 



2. The minimum frequency of the pulse of 

 the female, at more than one period of life, 

 falls below that of the male ; but its maximum 

 frequency is, at all periods, above that of the 

 male. 



3. The range of the pulse in both sexes is 

 considerable ; in the male it extends from 28 

 to 56, in the female from 32 to 68 beats, and 

 it is probable that more numerous observa- 

 tions would extend this range still farther. 

 The average range in the male is 43 ; in the 

 female, 48. 



4. For the purpose of assisting the memory, 

 the average pulse of the adult male may be 

 stated at 70, that of the adult female at 80. 

 The highest number is somewhat less than 

 100 in the adult male, and somewhat more 

 than 110 in the adult female. The least 

 number in each is about 50. 



The lowest number recorded in the table, 

 as occurring in healthy males, is 46, and in 

 healthy females 52. These, however, are not 

 the least numbers on record ; for Heberden 

 counted 42, 30, and even 26 pulses in healthy 

 males, the latter number in a man of 80 ; and 

 Fordyce one case of 26, in an old man in the 

 Charter-house, and another of 20. The 

 writer, some years since, met with a pulse of 

 38 in a gentleman then and now in the en- 

 joyment of good, though not robust, health. 

 The lowest number observed by Fioyer was 

 55. Falconer counted a pulse of 36, and 

 another of 24, in healthy females, and Dr. 

 Graves records one of 38. Pulses as low as 

 16, or even 14 beats, have been counted ; but 

 it is doubtful whether the persons in whom 

 they occurred were healthy. Low frequencies 

 of pulse observed in disease are beyond the 

 scope of this essay. On the other hand, it is 

 probable that extended observations would 

 reveal the occasional occurrence in healthy 

 persons of both sexes of higher frequencies of 

 the pulse than any recorded in the tables. 



Temperament. Nothing is at present 

 known of the frequency of the pulse as in- 

 fluenced by temperament. The speculations 

 of Fioyer upon this subject are too fanciful, 

 and have too little foundation in fact, to de- 

 serve a place among the sober results of ob- 

 servation.* The writer's experience would 

 le;id him to attach little importance to tem- 

 perament as a cause of variation in the pulse, 

 as he has found high and low frequencies in 

 men of the same temperament ; and some of 

 the lowest pulses he has observed have been 

 in males of opposite temperaments. It is not 

 uncommon, too, to find pulses of very low 

 frequency in persons of the sanguine tem- 

 perament, and in men remarkable for energy 

 of character and nervous excitability. The 

 strumous diathesis is often characterised by a 

 feeble pulse of low frequency, while those 

 who are subject to gout have, as a general 



* The choleric tempers may be betwixt these 

 numbers 75 and 80, the salt betwixt 80 and 85, the 

 phlegmatic betwixt 70 and 65, the cold melancholy 

 betwixt 65 and GO." Pulse Watch, p. 57. 



rule, a stronger pulse of higher frequency. It 

 is probable that, cceteris paribus, the large 

 chest and muscular frame are accompanied by 

 an infrequent, and the small chest and spare 

 form by a frequent pulse. But the varying 

 frequencies of the pulse observed in different 

 subjects have yet to be submitted to that ex- 

 tended and searching observation by which 

 alone the several concurrent causes can be 

 successively eliminated, and the most influ- 

 ential circumstances displayed. 



Stature. Bryan Robinson * has some 

 speculations and calculations upon this cause, 

 which deserve to be classed with the fanciful 

 conceits of rloyer. They profess to be strictly 

 founded upon observation ; but their fallacy 

 will be apparent, when it is stated that the 

 important element of age is altogether over- 

 looked. Falconer f follows the example of 

 Bryan Robinson; and more recently M.Ra- 

 meauxj, in a letter addressed to M. Quetelet, 

 pursues the same unprofitable inquiry. The 

 observations, 64 in number, were made by 

 M. Pingrenon, an army surgeon. The subjects 

 examined were all healthy soldiers, placed in 

 similar circumstances, which circumstances, 

 however, are not specified, nor are the ages 

 mentioned. The ordinary range of age in 

 soldiers of the same regiment is quite suffi- 

 cient to account for the very slight differences 

 of frequency which M. Rameaux attributes to 

 stature. How slight that difference is will be 

 seen from the following comparison : Stature, 

 5 feet GA inches ;- pulse, from observation, 

 64'43 : stature, 5 feet 9 inches ; pulse, also 

 from observation, 62'62. The calculated num- 

 bers are 64'06 and 63. The effect of stature 

 on the pulse has yet to be determined, and it 

 will require a large assortment of observations 

 made on persons of the same sex and age, at 

 the same time of the day, in the same posture 

 of the body, and placed in all respects under 

 the same circumstances. 



Posture. No part of the subject of the 

 pulse, not even excepting its diurnal vari- 

 ations, has been more carefully examined than 

 the influence of the posture of the body. 

 Though the broad fact, that the pulse in disease 

 is affected by change of posture, seems to have 

 been familiar to the ancients, the first re- 

 corded experiment on the healthy subject was 

 made by Bryan Robinson ||, who obtained 

 the following numbers : Standing, 78 ; sit- 

 ting, 68 ; lying, 64. Dr. Macdonnell is the 

 next person who devoted his attention to this 

 subject, and who appears, from his own state- 

 ment, to have been engaged upon it so early 

 as the year 1784.1 Falconer, in his work 



* Animal Economy, p. 132 134. 



) p. 1013. 



j Bulletins of the Royal Academy of Brussels, 

 vol. vi. 



The little importance to be attached to these 

 results will appear, when it is stated that by disre- 

 garding the influence of sex, and looking only to the 

 stature of the body, the pulse of the female is made 

 to exceed that of the male by only two or three 

 beats, instead of the true number 9 or 10 beats. 

 Op. cit. p. 177. 

 Transactions of the British Association for the 



