PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 823 
inflammatory action, probably specially so of membranous 
and serous structures in the earlier stages of that action. 
A feeble pulse (pulsus debilis) and soft pulse {j m ^ sus 
mollis) may be regarded together. In both the impulse of 
the heart is weak, the tonicity of the walls of the vessels les¬ 
sened, and the volume of blood small. In the soft pulse the 
compressibility of the artery is very marked, and in the 
feeble pulse the stroke of the blood-wave is little felt. These 
conditions are encountered during the latter stages of ex¬ 
hausting diseases; they are indicative of weakness, ansemia, 
and serious structural changes. 
4th. As respects the quality of regularity or irregularity, 
either of the pulsations themselves or of the intervals occur¬ 
ring between each, the character of irregularity of the pul¬ 
sations and of their relations to each other is often rather 
curious and complicated. 
The simplest form is irregularity as to the character of 
the pulsations, not as to the intervals occurring between 
them. 
In these cases there may be a certain number of beats at 
regular intervals between each, followed by a lesser number, 
of tone, character, and force entirely different; the greater 
number may follow each other in regular succession, and be 
of normal character; the smaller number, following or pre¬ 
ceding, may be quicker, stronger, or weaker; those inter¬ 
posed pulsations may be all of the same character, whatever 
the deviation may be, or they may be of dissimilar charac¬ 
ters, or they may be marked by irregularity in the intervals 
which occur between each. 
A modification of the irregular pulse is the intermit¬ 
tent pulse. In this form there is a beat omitted; this 
intermittency may be regular, i. e. occurring after a certain 
number of pulsations, or it may be irregularly intermit¬ 
tent, occurring at uncertain times in a given period. This 
pulse, although it may be met with in horses showing 
otherwise no abnormal conditions, and in these seemingly 
associated with or resulting from indigestion, is, never¬ 
theless, to be regarded with grave concern. I have found 
both, as the irregular and intermittent, accompanying 
severe forms of catarrhal influenza, with pneumonic com¬ 
plications ; also as a prominent symptom of the sequelae 
of this disease—hydrothorax and of structural changes 
of the pericardium, also of chronic disease of the valves of 
the heart. 
The dicrotic pulse (pulsus dicrotus), double pulse, is that 
in which the finger feels struck twice at each pulsation one 
