376 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



more turgid ; the blood is more heated ; the action of the 

 heart is heightened, and the pulse increases in proportion. 

 It is sometimes the case that the blood is thick when there 

 is but very little fever; but the amount of the latter is al- 

 ways indicated by the quickness of the pulse. The quick, 

 throbbing pulse speaks of inflammation somewhere; the hard, 

 corded pulse, of some chronic or long-standing disease. 

 Sometimes we find the pulse to present both of these con- 

 ditions simultaneously, and then the case is an alarming one, 

 calling for prompt and vigorous measures, or death will 

 probably forestall further efforts. 



Besides the terms employed above, there are others in gen- 

 eral use among horsemen, to distinguish the various kinds 

 of pulsations recognizable under the influences of disease. 

 The hard pulse is that in which the beats evidence powerful, 

 perhaps even violent, over-action of the heart, but without 

 much disturbance of the circulation otherwise. In the wiry 

 pulse, they appear small as to volume, but hard and jerking, 

 indicating great irritability in the region of the heart, so 

 that the ventricles contract too soon, before they are properly 

 filled. Danger does not liirk behind this, but advances with 

 it boldly, defiantly, and with rapid strides indeed. It be- 

 tokens acute inflammation, especially of the bowels, or some- 

 times of the urinary organs. The oppressed pulse exists when 

 the arteries are too full, overloaded with blood thrown out 

 from the heart, but returning to it with difliculty. There is 

 obstruction somewhere, such that even the immensely power- 

 ful contractions of the muscular walls of the heart can hardly 

 force the sluggish current through the blood-vessels. In- 

 flammation of the lungs, a sudden and violent attack of 

 pneumonia, is generally the cause of this phenomenon. In 

 this case bleeding, if not carried to excess, will actually in- 

 crease the strength of the pulsations instead of weakening 

 them. It will be the proper recourse in all the conditions 

 of the pulse thus far enumerated. 



Not so, however, in the case of the weak pulse; for here 

 there is debility and exhaustion, \nd the heart acts but feebly, 



