PULSE, in the animal economy, denotes the beating, or throbbing of the heart and arteries.
With regard to motion, the pulses are reckoned only four, great and little, quick and slow. When quickness and greatness are joined together, it becomes violent; and when it is little and slow, it is called a weak pulse.
They are also said to be frequent and rare, equal and unequal; but these are not the essential affections of motion. Frequency and quickness are often confounded with each other. A pulse is said to be hard or soft, with regard to the artery, according as it is tense, remittent, and hard, or flaccid, soft, and lax. Add to these, a convulsive pulse; which does not proceed from the blood, but from the state of the artery, and is known by a tremulous subfultory motion, and the artery seems to be drawn upwards: this, in acute fevers, is the sign of death; and is said to be the pulse in dying persons, which is likewise generally unequal and intermitting. A great pulse shews a more copious afflux of the blood to the heart, and from thence into the arteries; a little pulse, the contrary.