DJSEASES OF THE HEART. lo; 



to 8c; dog 80 to 100; cat 120 to 140; goose no; pigeon 

 136; chicken 140. In old age it may be five less in large 

 quadrupeds, and twenty or thirty in small ones. Youth and 

 small size imply a greater rapidity. The new-born foal has a 

 pulse three times as frequent as the horse, the six-months' colt 

 double, and the two-year old oue and a quarter. It is increased 

 by hot, close buildings, exertioii, fear, a nervous temperament, 

 and pregnancy. In large quadrupeds there is a monthly 

 increase of four to five beats per minute after the sixth month. 

 Independently of such conditions a rapid pulse implies fever, 

 inflammation, or debility.* T\\q force of the pulse varies in the 

 different species in health, thus it is full and moderately tense 

 in the horse ; smaller and harder in the ass and mule ; full, 

 soft, and rolling in the ox; small and quick in sheep ; firm and 

 hard in swine ; and firm and with a sharp (quick) beat in dogs 

 and cats. lii disease it may become more frequent, slow, quick 

 (with sharp impulse), tardy (with slow rolling movement), /////, 

 strong, tueak, small (when thread-like but quite distinct), hard 

 (when with jarring sensation), soft (when the opposite), oppressed 

 (when the artery is full and tense, but the impulse jerking and 

 difficult as if the flow were obstructed), jerking and receding 

 (when with empty, flaccid vessel it seems to leap forward at 

 each beat), intermittent (when a beat is missed ■■ at regular 

 intervals), unequal (when some beats are strong and others 

 weak), irregular (when without any distinct -intermission for a 

 period equal to an entire beat the intervals between successive 

 beats vary in length). Besides these a peculiar //;/-;// is. usually 

 felt with each beat in very weak, bloodless states. 



* The pulse may be felt wherever a considerable artery passes over a super- 

 ficial bone : thus on the cord felt running across the border of the lower jaw 

 just in front of its curved portion : beneath the bony ridge which extends 

 upward from the eye : in horses inside the elbow : in cattle over the middle of 

 the first rib or beneath the tail ; in dogs in a groove running down the inner 

 side of the thigh. 



