Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/177

examination of the pulse is, however, considered the most important of all, as furnishing the best criterion of the phenomena and progress of disease, and it is the one usually depended upon by the native doctors. In order to know the precise character of the pulse, the radial artery at the wrist is usually chosen. In case of a male patient, his right pulse is generally felt, and in case of a female the left. In feeling the pulse the physician is to note its compressibility, frequency, regularity, size, and the different impressions it produces on the fingers. If it feels like the creeping of a serpent or a leech, wind is supposed to be predominant. If it be jumping like a frog, or similar to the flight of a crow or a sparrow, it indicates the predominance of bile. When it strikes the finger slowly and resembles the strutting of a peacock, it shows that the phlegm is in excess. The pulse that suggests the running of a partridge is called delirium pulse. An irregular pulse indicates delirium tremens, and a pulse which is almost imperceptible, depressed, irregular, and extremely languid, is a precursor of death. Pulsations in one suffering from fever or amorous passions are quick, and in a healthy man they are of a medium