How to feel the pulse and what to feel in it : practical hints for beginners / by William Ewart.

Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: How to feel the pulse and what to feel in it : practical hints for beginners / by William Ewart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    information concerning them which may be gained by the two simple movements of the fingers about to be described: A gliding or nibbing movement across the axis of the artery. A similar movement conducted along the course of the vessel. By the first we learn whether the artery has much or little thickness, hardness and elasticity. By the second we are informed as to the degree of smoothness, of straightness, or of tortuosity; and the elasticity of the vessel is further tested. In addition to this form of manipulation, which addresses itself to the arterial walls, there is a finer fingering of the pulse itself of which the systematic pressure applied to the artery is but the coarser mode. It can be more easily hinted at than described. It is a touch which tests the qualities of the pulse through and through, sometimes playing at the surface, some- times sounding as it were the depth of the arterial stream, sometimes bearing with full weight against the force of the pulse wave, sometimes pursuing it in its fall and floating up with its rise, a touch as soft and as keen as that of the blind,—in short a touch with a mind in it. METHODS FOR RAPIDLY FINDING THE PULSA- TIONS OF SOME OTHER ARTERIES. HOW TO FIND THE BEAT OF THE FACIAL ARTERY. In this case the distal phalanx (with nail downwards) is brought to bear from above and from the front