he first and second or of the
second and third fingers should be pressed lightly on the skin over this
artery when its pulsations are to be studied.

The normal pulse of the healthy horse varies in frequency as follows:

Stallion 28 to 32 beats per minute.

Gelding 33 to 38 beats per minute.

Mare 34 to 40 beats per minute.

Foal 2 to 3 years old 40 to 50 beats per minute.

Foal 6 to 12 months old 45 to 60 beats per minute.

Foal 2 to 4 weeks old 70 to 90 beats per minute.

The pulse is accelerated by the digestion of rich food, by hot weather,
exercise, excitement, and alarm. It is slightly more rapid in the
evening than it is in the morning. Well-bred horses have a slightly more
rapid pulse than sluggish, cold-blooded horses. The pulse should be
regular; that is, the separate beats should follow each other after
intervals of equal length, and the beats should be of equal fullness, or
volume.

In disease, the pulse may become slower or more rapid than in health.
Slowing of the pulse may be caused by old age, great exhaustion, or
excessive cold. It may be due to depression of the central nervous
system, as in dumminess, or be the result of the administration of
drugs, such as digitalis or strophantus. A rapid pulse is almost always
found in fever, and the more severe the infection and the weaker the
heart the more rapid is the pulse. Under these conditions, the beats may
rise to 80, 90, or even 120 per minute. When the pulse is above 100 per
minute the outlook for recovery is not promising, and especially if this
symptom accompanies high temperature or occurs late in an infectious
disease. In nearly all of the diseases of the heart and in anemia the
pulse becomes rapid.

The pulse is irregular in diseases of the heart, and especially where
the valves are affected. The irregularity may consist in varying
intervals between the beats or the dropping of one or more beats at
regular or irregular intervals. The latter condition sometimes occurs in
chronic diseases of the brain. The pulse is said to be weak, or soft,
when the beats are indistinct, because little blood is forced through
the artery by each contraction of the heart. This condition occurs when
there is a constriction of the vessels leading from the heart and it
occurs in certain infectious and febrile diseases, and is an indication
of heart weakne