822 PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 
(pulsus rams) —sometimes confounded with the slow pulse 
(pulsus tardus), otherwise recognised as the long pulse, the 
opposite of the quick pulse. In the slow or long pulse the beat 
of the vessels is prolonged beyond the normal time, indica¬ 
tive of slow or prolonged contraction of the heart’s cavities,; 
This combination of pulse—the infrequent and tardy—is 
generally found associated with, or may be said to be indica¬ 
tive of, cerebral mischief, as compression, coma, epilepsy, 
&c.; it is also observed in severe functional disturbance of 
the digestive organs. 
Certain medicinal agents in physiological doses induce 
this condition ; an infrequent pulse is also seen in structural 
diseases of the heart, where the impaired cardiac power is 
unequal to produce the arterial wave. 
2nd. Alteration in the pulse as to the degree of quickness 
with which each pulsation is accompanied. 
Quickness of the pulse, as already remarked, must not be 
confounded with frequency of its beats. 
The former has reference to duration of the actual stroke 
or impulse of the artery, the latter to rapidity with which 
the beats follow each other. 
The quick pulse is the pulse of irritation and of cardiac 
weakness. 
3rd. In variations as to the character of volume, hardness, 
or strength of each pulsation we have many distinctions. 
The volume of the pulse may be greater ( pulsus magnus ), or 
it may be less [pulsus parvus). 
The large or full pulse, where the artery is distended with 
the volume of blood, may be either associated with strength 
or with feebleness of impulse. In the former the artery 
does not yield readily to the finger, and the impulse is firm 
and distinct; it is the pulse of strong cardiac action, of ple¬ 
thora, or of capillary obstruction. The latter is sometimes 
termed the oppressed pulse, in which the artery feels full; it 
is easily compressed, but the blood-wave is indistinctly felt, 
or felt in a slightly jerking manner. This is the pulse of 
pneumonia. 
A hard pulse (pulsus durus) is one in which the pulse of 
the finger seems to yield to the artery, not the artery to the 
pressure of the finger, and is dependent on the tonicity or 
contractility of the arterial muscular coats or wall. This 
quality or feeling of resistance, so to speak, may be asso¬ 
ciated with fulness of volume, but more often with the oppo¬ 
site ; the calibre seems lessened, known as hard and small, 
wiry or thready, corded and incompressible. This hard and 
small pulse is particularly the pulse of acute disease and of 
