16 CULPEPER’s ENGLISH PHYSICIAN, 
fifty-two feet in a minute; but this velocity is continually abated in the progrels of 
the blood through the numerous fections, or branches, of the arteries; fothat before. 
it arrives at the extremities of the body, its motion is infinitely diminithed. The 
{pace of time wherein the whole mafs of blood may ordinarily circulate, is variouflyy 
determined. Some of the lateft writers fate ic thus: fuppofing the heart to make 
200 pulfes in an hour, and that at every pulfe there is expelled an ounce of blood ;. 
as the whole mafs is not ordinarily computed to exceed 24 pounds, it muft be cite 
culated feven or eight times over inthe fpace of an hour. The impetus, occafioning’ 
the circulation, is great enough in fome animals to raife the: blood fix, feven, or 
eight, feet high from the orifice it {pins out at; which, however, is far exceeded by - 
that of the fap of a vine in bleeding-time, which will fometimes rife upwards of 
forty feet high. The heat.and motion of the blood are always greater, from.a greater 
_ activity. in the foul, in the day than in the night; and they are likewife ever greater 
~ from the food taken in the day-time, for the pulfe is. always quicker after eating 
than before it; after a full meal than after a fpare one; and after a meal of drier 
and ftronger ee than after a meal of food that is moifter and weaker: — 
Or THE | dee 8 Sos Se ee ee 8 
THE pufe is that reciprocal motion of the heart and arteries, whereby-the warm 
blood, thrown out of the left ventricle of the-heart, is fo impelled into the arteries, 
and {o,diftributed throughout the whole body, as to be perceived by the finger. © Tr 
is certain, that life, health; and: the due order of the whole body, depend upon a 
proper and equabie circulation of the blood and humours through the folid parts; . 
fo that, the better regulated and the more equable the circulation is, the more per- © 
fectly nature: preferves herfelf, and cures the difeafes incident to her; and, on the 
contrary, the more this ‘circulation recedes from a due and equable ftate, the weaker _ 
nature is found to be, and the more fubjeét to misfortunes and difeafés. "Now every 
| one muft own, that the circulation of the blood’cannot be better inveftigated than 
feeling the pulfe, not in a fuperficial manner, but for a fafficient time: for the 
pulfe not only difcovers the imperfections and ftrength of the whole body, but alfo 
€ nature of the blood, and’ ftate of the various fecretions. And, as a pendulum of 
clock, by its-equable and regular vibrations, manifefts the worth of the clock, fo 
vulfe difeover the habit of the patient, and the vigour or deprivation ¢ of all 
A ie area and equal, pulfe, is the rule and meafure by which we are to 
judge of the reft. A’ moderate pulfe, is that which is large, but neither quick not 
flow, hard nor equals this is the pulfé with which all others ought to be cottt- 
pared; and: which denotes the beftftare of health, the abfence of all presenatits 
