VOL. XV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 16q 



Davidis Abercrombii, M. D. de Variatione ac T^arietate Pulsus Observationes. 

 Accessit ejusdem Authoris nova Medicince turn Speculative turn Practice 

 Clavis, &c. Lond. ]685. Svo. N°]71, p. 1023. 



The author in this tract, among the various opinions of the cause and origin 

 of the pulse, thinks it most probably proceeds from the joint motion of the 

 spirits, arteries, and muscles.* And as to the variation of it, he assigns these 

 for most certain causes, viz. The climate, season, temperament, age, diet, 

 passion, disease, &c. 



The climate alters the pulse. Hence the Frenchman's pulse is more equal 

 and quick ; the German's, Dutch, English, and Scot's, more uncertain ;-|- 

 which yet is something to be attributed to their irregular living ; in general, 

 the higher and nearer the sun is, the quicker; the lower and farther off, the 

 slower is the pulse. And, he thinks, for the most part the systole is more 

 quick than the diastole. In rainy seasons the pulse is more free and 

 nimble, by reason of the less pressure of the atmosphere ; it is more impetus 

 ous in the spring; more equal after a quiet sleep; weak and uncertain in 

 men very intent upon business, &c. The temperament results from the animal 

 spirits, and the contractive or dilative motion of the muscles and arteries, to 

 which their fibres are even by nature disposed. Melancholy renders the pulse 

 extremely inconstant, probably through the great thoughtfulness of such men. 

 In bilious tempers it is high and strong; in the sanguine more equal and re- 

 gular than in any ; in the phlegmatic equal enough too, but more slow. In 

 children, especially infants, the pulse is very small, but through the great 

 quantity of lymph, as it were drowning and dulling the action of the spirits. 

 In old men extremely uncertain. In gluttonous people, dull and slow, unless 

 by drinking it be made as it were stumbling and vertiginous, which often fore- 

 runs sudden deaths. By too sparing a diet it becomes very small and slow, 

 always abates upon long fasting. Of the passions, it is most altered by fear, 

 joy, and anger ; to which women are more subject than men. In fevers the 

 pulse is varied according to the beginning, height, and declination. In scorbutic 

 and hysteric persons, very uncertain. In icteric and hydropic, much stopped 

 and interrupted by the stagnant humours. In the gout, free and expedite. In 

 the plague, as in the asthma, mightily oppressed, unless freed by the hot fit. 



* The pulse is occasioned by the heart driving the blood with impetus during its systole into the 

 arteries. It consists therefore in a dilatation of the arteries, accompanied perhaps with some degree 

 of displacement, in consequence of tlie suddenness and force with which such dilatation is made. 



f These are mere assertions. In the whole of these remarks the author has given full scope to his 

 imagination. 



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