24 VETERINARY HOMCEOPATHY. 



the pulse in a healthy horse, as he will be able at all events to dis- 

 tinguish between a healthy pulse and one that indicates a dis- 

 ordered state of the system, and this, after all, is about as mucii 

 as a lay horseman can expect to attain to; there are three special 

 things to be observed in taking the pulse, namely, the number of 

 beats per minute, which in health will on the average be 33 to 40; 

 the regularity in the time between one beat and the next; and the 

 even state of the blood pressure in the artery rendering it uniformly 

 compressible; the following variations from the normal may be 

 observable, viz: hard and full; soft and full; intermittent; irregular 

 as to compressibility; weak, thin, small, wiry, thready; oppressed, 

 by which is understood a very full artery with a very in- 

 distinct pulsation; and the hard, throbbing pulse, which is sug- 

 gestive of acute inflammation in some organ; finally there is the 

 exceptionally slow pulse, which, when present in an animal that 

 has in health a pulse of normal speed and regularit}', suggests 

 brain disease. 



The artery, which is most usually selected for pulse taking, is 

 that known as the submaxillary; it will be found winding round 

 the angle of the jaw in company with the vein and the duct of 

 the parotid gland, from which two vessels it must be distinguished; 

 the artery is almost always, if not invariably, found situate in 

 front of the duct and vein, and will be found to be the most firm 

 and elastic of the three; another artery which may conveniently 

 be used for the purpose is the radial; it is situate higher up, inside 

 the forelegs, and will be felt just in front of the elbow-joint by 

 introducing the fingers between the leg and the breast; this SLVtery 

 is also accompanied by a vein. The two central fingers, or the 

 second and third, are the best to take the pulse with, and these 

 should be laid transversely along the artery wuth just sufficient 

 pressure thereon to enable the operator to observe the number of 

 beats per minute, which should be told off with a stop-watch 

 having a large second-hand. It is absolutely necessary to care- 

 fully distinguish between an artery and a vein, as in the latter no 

 pulse is observable for anatomical reasons that do not call for ex- 

 planation here, suffice it to say that it is the artery that must be 

 relied upon. 



Another very satisfactory method of checking off the number 

 of heart beats per minute is to have the near foreleg pulled right 



