PULMOTOR 





PUMA 



ness corporation to own the town it had built. 

 and Pullman was given a village charter. In 

 1889 it was annexed to Chicago. 



PUL' MOTOR, a device for inducing artificial 

 respiration, used in cases of electric shock, gas 

 poisoning and drowning. It consists primarily 

 of a tank of compressed oxygen connected with 

 an injector, by means of which oxygon diluted 

 with air is convoyed to tin- lungs of tho patient. 

 In the original type of instrument an ingenious 

 mechanical device operates a valve in such a 

 that air is blown to or sucked from a 

 mask fastened over the patient's face. An 

 improved model has a switch worked by hand 

 ad of the automatic device. It is claimed 

 that the latter instrument provides a more 

 natural method of respiration. 



When the pulmotor was first introduced 

 many extravagant claims were made for it, but 

 experience has shown that its value has been 

 ";tted. After an exhaustive investigation, 

 a committee acting under the direction of the 

 United States Bureau of Mines reported that 

 in a large number of supposed resuscitations 

 the patient had begun to breathe before the 

 apparatus was used. The committee pointed 

 out the dangers connected with the use of 

 such devices, one of which is their tendency 

 to suck air out of the small air cells of the 

 lungs, causing them to collapse. Another 

 source of peril is their tendency to pump air 

 into the stomach. In the hands of a person 

 who does not understand it, the pulmotor may 

 be a very dangerous instrument. It should 

 be remembered that if artificial respiration is 

 not begun within ten minutes after the sub- 

 ject has stopped breathing, nothing can be done 

 to revive him. For this reason some manual 

 method of resuscitation should always be at- 

 tempted, for it is fatal to wait any length of 

 time for a device to be brought. A standard 

 manual method of inducing respiration is de- 

 scribed in these volumes in the article DROWN - 

 INC. A halftone illustration of the pulmotor 

 accompanies this article. 



PULQUE, pool'ka, an alcoholic drink, gen- 

 erally considered the national beverage of 

 Mexico. It is made by fermenting the juice of 

 the agave for about ten days and then mixing 

 with it a small quantity of fresh juice. This 

 causes a rapid, violent fermentation, and the 

 pulque is ready for use in about forty-eight 

 hours. The drink has a heavy taste some- 

 what resembling sour milk, and, while not 

 pleasant to foreigners, is greatly reli.-hed by 

 the natives of Mexico. It is very cooling and 



rather nutritious, but if taken in large quanti- 

 DeaplVe intoxication. So much of 

 - consumed that not less than ten million 

 dollars is invested in Mexico in agave culti- 

 vation. See YEAST; BACTERIA AND BACTERIOLOGY. 



PULSE, THE, a regular throbbing in the ar- 

 teries, felt as a distinct beat in tho radial artery 

 at the wrist, or in the temporal artery. In the 

 system of blood circulation, with each con- 

 traction of the left ventricle a wave of blood 

 is poured into the aorta, the great artery which 

 carries blood from the heart. The aorta is 

 already filled with blood, and the wave forced 

 into it by each contraction of the ventricle 

 causes its walls to expand. Being elastic, they 

 then contract, and force the blood into tin 

 arteries branching from the aorta, where the 

 same process is repeated. Thus a series of ex- 

 pansions and contractions travels along tin- 

 entire arterial system. The pulse is felt easily 

 at the wrist and temples because the arteries 

 there are near the surface. Doctors feel tin 

 pulse of a sick person, for they know that if 

 it beats too fast or too slow there is some ir- 

 regularity of the heart's action. The pulse of 

 a healthy adult beats on an average seventy- 

 two times a minute. It is more rapid in chil- 

 dren than in adults and slower in old age than 

 in middle life. There is no discernible pulse 

 in the veins. See CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD; 

 HEART. 



PULSE FAMILY. See LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 



PUMA, pu'mah, or COUGAR, koo'gahr, a 

 wild animal of the cat family, once found in 

 the Americas from Canada to the southern 

 part of South America. With advancing civ- 

 ilization it has become extinct in large a 

 of its range, but is still abundant in the Rocky 

 Mountain district, where it preys on sheep, 

 calves and other ranch animals. In that part 

 of the country the puma is called mountain 

 lion, because of its resemblance to a lione>>. 

 It is also known as panther and cougar. The 

 coat of the adult puma is tawny, the hairs 

 being fawn-gray tipped with red. It has no 

 spots, in this respect differing from the jaguar 

 (which see) ; the throat, insides of the legs and 

 the belly are white, and the tip of the tail 

 black. 



The young are born with dusky-brown spots 

 and with ring marks on the tail, but these 

 markings disappear in about six months. A 

 full-grown animal is four or five feet long, ex- 

 clusive of tho tail, which measures about two 

 feel in length. The body is slender, the legs 

 long and (he head round and rather small. 



