Tropical home nursing / by R.J. Blackham.

  • Robert J. Blackham
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tropical home nursing / by R.J. Blackham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    96/198 page 82
    THE PULSE, Taking the pulse needs lonp and painstaking practice. It is one of the most important guides with regard to the patient’s condition. By it one is able to tell whether the patient is gaining or losing strength. To take the Pulse.—(1) Stand or sit, according to the position of the patient, on the outer side of the right or left upper limb.. (2) Place three fingers (the fore, the middle and the ring) on the radial artery, about half an inch from the outer or thumb side of the forearm, and with the central of the three fingers one inch above the front of the wrist; at the same time place the thumb . behind the forearm so as to support the hand taking the pulse. It is usual to feel the right pulse with the left hand and the left pulse with the right. (3) Hold a watch | (possessing a secondhand) in the unoccupied hand and count the rate of the pulse for a full minute, noticing at the same time whether the pulse is intermittent or irregu- lar. The pulse rate in health varies from 70 to 80 beats per minute. The pulse of a sleeping patient may be taken by placing the finger on the temporal artery just in front of the ear, A pulse which with, a stationary or falling temperature, gets quicker day by day is a sure indication of a failing heart, The pulse varies in different fevers in frequency and force. It may be, as occasionally happens in enteric fever, even slower than in health. As a rule, itis much more rapid, varing from 100 to 120 in the adult and © sunning up to 180 in children, Its frequency increases with the severity of the general symptoms. A pulse exceeding 120 in the adult is an indication that the case
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