3dly. A full, quick, and hard pulse, denotes great irritability in the nerves, and a redundancy of blood; this is the pulse of a fever; and here bleeding, if timely applied, is very requisite, as also medicines which promote perspiration.
4thly. A small and quick pulse, denotes an irritability in the nervous system, and a contraction of the arteries; this is generally the pulse which attends sudden shocks and frights, as also in the cold fits of agues. The causes should carefully be attended to: if, from a sudden shock, bleeding is useful; but in the latter case, it is hurtful. It seldom lasts long, and a full feverish pulse generally follows, and the state of the patient ought here to be the guide: for, the same pulse may proceed from too great a plenty of blood, as well as from a deficiency; consequently requires different treatment; and this shall be pointed out more fully hereafter.
5thly. An irregular full pulse, is at all times a bad one; many may be the causes, and generally denotes a great confusion in the nervous system, and in the circulation of the blood. This pulse is generally the attendant on violent inflammations, phrenzy, delirium, &c. and if it continues any time, forebodes great danger: bleeding in time is greatly requisite, and other remedies, in order to assist the nerves, and bring the circulation to its proper regulation again.
6thly. An irregular small pulse, is frequently the attendant of an emaciated constitution, putrid fevers, and consumptions; and this dangerous pulse too generally forebodes the approach of death. The more irregular the pulse grows, small, weak, trembling, and leaves off by irregular intervals, the sooner dissolution is at hand; till at last, the pulse entirely disappears, and life ceases. But dangerous as this pulse is, yet it must be observed, that it often appears in the strongest constitutions, as in sudden emotions of the mind, falls, &c. or in a swooning. This is also the last and the first pulse in suffocations; or in other words, the struggling pulse between life and death.
These few distinctions of the pulse we will let suffice, as they, when properly attended to, will in all cases enable us to make a true distinction between health and the different stages of sickness, and accordingly direct us to a true method of cure.
SECT. II.
Of the Effects of Bleeding
There is, perhaps, not a greater remedy in medicine than bleeding; but good and effectual as it is, yet I will venture to say, there is none more pernicious than this, if injudiciously applied. As I value the life of my fellow creatures, I would at all times caution them against the injudicious application of this operation, being persuaded, that more have lost their lives by the lancet, than by the sword, and pestilence itself. Not to be tedious on this important subject, I shall give here some very few rules, whereby a patient may be judged in a proper state for bleeding; and likewise, where that operation ought to be avoided: for all the service we can possibly hope and receive from bleeding, is to lessen the quantity of blood, by which the whole body becomes relaxed, consequently less liable to the inflammatory irritation, that a too great quantity of blood might occasion; but on the contrary, if the solids are but weak, and the blood poor, we only augment the evil by bleeding, which we would wish to remove, as thereby the system becomes weakened, and not able to disengage itself from the obnoxiousness it is incumbered with; and thus proves the very destruction it was intended to remedy. The notion of drawing off the bad blood by bleeding, is very erroneous and absurd; the whole is too intimately mixed, and will ever generate the same again till the disease is removed.