THE HOP.^E AXD ITS DISEASES, 91 



In attending on diseased horses, it is hardly possihle 

 for the farrier to pay too much attention to the pulse, 

 or to attach too much importance to its variation, as it 

 becomes a criterion of very considerable certainty, and 

 a guide that seldom leads to error. Every farrier ought 

 to accustom himself to the natural state of the pulse, by 

 frequently feeling different pulses of healthy horses, by 

 which means the variety produced by disease will easily 

 be detected ; for an affected pulse does not only consist in 

 its quickness and slowness, but also in its softness and 

 hardness, the difference between either of which, and 

 that of health, can only be learned by attention ; thus 

 a pulse may be full or small, it may be quick or slow, it 

 may be hard or soft, or it may be regular or irregular, 

 and to which varieties we may almost refer all the 

 different states of the pulse, A full strong j^ulse, where 

 the resistance to the pressure of the fingers is very 

 considerable, giving a bounding stroke, and evidently 

 betokening an increase of the diameter of the artery, 

 seldom exists in the horse. Something like it only 

 occurs in spasmodic colic, and a very few other unfre- 

 quent affections. The highest inflammatory diseases 

 increase the quickness of the pulse, and that generally 

 in proportion to the extent of the affection. They also 

 produce, in the same proportion, a hardened vibrating 

 fstroke, but which is yet without the full bounding feel 

 present in these cases in the human ; thus, though the 

 pulse in the horse presents a much more unerring 

 criterion of the state of disease, yet analogy fails in 

 detecting a similarity between the two, and experience 

 alone ought to direct the judgment. A small pulse 

 represents in' all cases great debility. A quick pulse 

 denotes considerable irritability in the system. A hard 

 or soft pulse present contrary indications. In most 

 inflammatory affections there is present a considerable 

 degree of this peculiar vibratory hardness in the pulse, 

 generally accompanied by an increased frequency also. 

 This \ibratory hardness is the usual attendant on 



