If all the world Should, in a pet of temperance, feed
on pulse. --Milton.
Note: In an artery the pulse is due to the expansion and
contraction of the elastic walls of the artery by the
action of the heart upon the column of blood in the
arterial system. On the commencement of the diastole of
the ventricle, the semilunar valves are closed, and the
aorta recoils by its elasticity so as to force part of
its contents into the vessels farther onwards. These,
in turn, as they already contain a certain quantity of
blood, expand, recover by an elastic recoil, and
transmit the movement with diminished intensity. Thus a
series of movements, gradually diminishing in
intensity, pass along the arterial system (see the Note
under {Heart}). For the sake of convenience, the radial
artery at the wrist is generally chosen to detect the
precise character of the pulse. The pulse rate varies
with age, position, sex, stature, physical and
psychical influences, etc.
2. Any measured or regular beat; any short, quick motion,
regularly repeated, as of a medium in the transmission of
light, sound, etc.; oscillation; vibration; pulsation;
impulse; beat; movement.
The measured pulse of racing oars. --Tennyson.
When the ear receives any simple sound, it is struck
by a single pulse of the air, which makes the
eardrum and the other membranous parts vibrate
according to the nature and species of the stroke.
--Burke.
{Pulse glass}, an instrument consisting to a glass tube with
terminal bulbs, and containing ether or alcohol, which the
heat of the hand causes to boil; -- so called from the
pulsating motion of the liquid when thus warmed.
{Pulse wave} (Physiol.), the wave of increased pressure
started by the ventricular systole, radiating from the
semilunar valves over the arterial system, and gradually
disappearing in the smaller branches.
the pulse wave travels over the arterial system at
the rate of about 29.5 feet in a second. --H. N.
Martin.
{To feel one's pulse}.
(a) To ascertain, by the sense of feeling, the condition
of the arterial pulse.
(b) Hence, to sound one's opinion; to try to discover
one's mind.