Observations respecting the pulse : intended to point out with greater certainty, the indications which it signifies, especially in feverish complaints / by William Falconer.

  • Falconer, William, 1744-1824.
Date:
1796
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations respecting the pulse : intended to point out with greater certainty, the indications which it signifies, especially in feverish complaints / by William Falconer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    evident, though not violent fymptoms of fever, fuch as a white tongue, hot Ikin, third, laffitude and pain in the limbs. Yet the pulfe in this cafe fcarcely ever exceeded 78, or at mod 80 beats in a minute. But I found on examination after his re- covery that what I had before fufpefted was true, and that his pulfe was naturally flow, not exceeding 54 or 55 bests in a minute. This circumdance per- feftly explained the feemingdifcordance of the fymp- toms. For as 54 is to 75, fo is 78 to 108.3. which lad number ought to be accounted the true rate of the pulfe, according to the ufual calculation, and is, as I have before obferved, the general number of the pulfe in low fevers. Nearly about the fame time I vifited, in confultation with an eminent phy- fician of this city, a patient who laboured under a fevere peripneumony attended w'ith the ufual fymp- toms, and which required three plentiful bleed- ings, and repeated and large evacuations of other kinds before it could be reduced. In this cafe the pulfe never exceeded (one examination only ex- cepted) 84 beats in a minute. Yet the pulfe was in this indance perfeflly proportional, lince in a natu- ral date it beat no more than 56 times in a minute. For as 56 is to 75, fo is 84 to 112.5, which lad number implies a rate of pulfe fufficiently quick to accord with the other concomitant fymptoms. But our opinions are not liable to be mifled merely from thinking the pulfe flower than what appears to correfpond with the other fymptoms of fever: they are at lead equally liable to beerroneous from think-