238 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



this as speedily as the circumstances will permit. 

 We have above stated the number of beats in a 

 healthy and diseased state. The heart may be 

 excited to more frequent and also to more violent 

 action. It may contract more powerfully upon the 

 blood-vessels, and consequently drive the fluid with 

 greater force through the arteries, and the expansion 

 of the coating of the arteries will be greater and 

 more abrupt. The quickened pulse indicates a 

 tendency to fever and irritation. 



SLOW PULSE. 



This is an indication of an oppressed condition of 

 the heart's action, and accompanies diseases of an 

 opposite kind from those which are the concomitants 

 of a quick pulse. It proves that the malady with 

 which it is connected results from a deficiency of 

 nervous energy. It is always a concomitant of sleepy 

 staggers. 



HARD PULSE. 



This is indicated by a firm and jerking feeling 

 under the pressure of the finger, and at the same 

 time accompanied by a fullness in the flow of blood 

 through the vessels. 



SMALL PULSE 



Is indicated by feebleness in the beat and a feeling 

 of languidness in the circulation, very easily discerned 

 under pressure of the finger. It, however, sometimes 

 happens that small pulse may be accompanied by 

 hardness and jerking, but still the remarkable small- 

 ness in the circulating fluid will be perceptible. 



