170 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1 685. 



In general, any variation of the pulse certainly shows some alteration in the 

 habit of body. 



. The pulse is unequal, either in respect of time or strength, that is, either it 

 strikes quicker and slower, or else stronger and weaker. The first commonly 

 in most acute distempers, and seldom betokens much danger. The latter both 

 in chronical and acute is very dangerous. And often, sometimes 2 or 3 days 

 or more, precedes death. It is interrupted when its strokes are much smaller 

 than usual, or their intervals much greater. The first shows a great decay of 

 strength. The latter, which is as it were a standing-still, foreruns swooning, 

 palsies, apoplexies, &c. and sometimes death itself. The intense pulse is 

 that whose stroke is very hard, or else this strength is made up by the frequency 

 of less mications, as in the height of fevers. The remiss has strokes less quick 

 or less strong, and in sickness shows more danger than the other. The super- 

 ficial pulse shows an exact temperament of body, as also a free and merry 

 temper of mind. The deep pulse shows a disposition to melancholy, asthmas, 

 lethargies, &c. and is more frequent in the aged than the young. The leaping 

 pulse often portends no great danger. The trembling shows great extremity, 

 and very few ever recover after it. But the wandering pulse, which sometimes 

 is felt at one place, sometimes at another, and sometimes no where, never but 

 some few minutes precedes dissolution, which yet may perhaps from volatile 

 spirits sometimes receive a short reprieve, but never a perfect restitution.* 



The design of the other tract is to teach how to discern the virtue and qua- 

 lity of any plant or other body, without the particular knowledge of the species 

 or name of it, only from the taste; which he says is either sour, as the sharp 

 leaved dock or olus sylvestre : harsh, as the medlar: austere or rough, as the 

 quince: sweet, as the fresh juice of ripe grapes: fat and oily, as the sesamutn: 

 bitter, as the wild cucumber: salt, as common salt: tart, as garlick: or lastly, 

 insipid, as the gourd. All which sorts he treats of in particular. 



Part of a Letter from Sir R. B. to Dr. L. concerning a new Sort of Calesh. 



N" 172, p. 1028. 



Sir William Petty, Mr. Molyneux and I have spent this day in making ex- 

 periments, with a new invented calesh, along with the inventor of it. It is in 

 all points different from any machine I have ever seen : it goes on two wheels ; 

 carries one person; is light enough. Though it hangs not on braces, yet it is 

 easier than the common coach, on all sorts of roads. A common coach will 



* These distinctions of the pulse being for the most part fanciful, very little ues can be derived 

 from tliem in practice. 



