HORSE-BACK RIDING. 43 



whether it removes congestion or causes the circula- 

 tion to increase in parts which are anemic, it always 

 favors the exercise of a function of the highest impor- 

 tance, since its deficiency in one case and its exagger- 

 ation in the other are the conditions from which mor- 

 bid phenomena spring. 



Haller says, " Equitatio parum pulsum auget neque 

 calefacit. " In fact, the heart beats more quickly 

 from the quickened motion of the blood, and the pulse, 

 which is the echo of the movement of the heart, marks 

 the amount of the increase. 



Nick gives his observations of the variations of the 

 pulse caused by horse-back riding as follows : the 

 rider at a walk has his pulse quickened from fifteen 

 to twenty pulsations in a minute, and in trotting the 

 increase is greater, amounting to forty-two beats a 

 minute more than before the exercise. 



In my researches on this subject, I arrived at nearly 

 the same conclusions; I remarked also that the in- 

 crease was greater in beginners than in those some- 

 what habituated to riding. 



The pulse at the same time beats with more force, 

 it is full and hard, and at first we think the arterial 

 tension is augmented. It is well, however, to avoid 

 falling into this error, as it might be of great impor- 

 tance in the therapeutic application we might be 

 tempted to make of horse-back riding. Here, our 

 senses are unfaithful, they deceive us. The sphyg- 

 mometer of Marev reveals the true condition. The 



