It will be seen that in neither comparison does the difference between the averages for the larger and smaller nuniber of observations exceed two beats, while the extremes, with one exception (the minima in the male, from 7 to 14), are the same. The sufficiency of the averages for practical purposes may also be fairly inferred from the result of a simple process of elimination adopted in the case of the female pulse. By taking 26 observa tions, and excluding the three maxima and the three minima, as being possibly due to a de parture from perfect health, an average of 20 observations was obtained, which gave the following regular series of numbers for the twelve septennial periods of the table-98, 94, 81, 80, 79, 78, 75, 75, 77, 78, 81, 82, showing a steady and progressive decrease during the first eight periods, and an equally progressive increase during the last four periods.
The difference between the male and female pulse continues to be well marked in advanced ages. Thus, in the observations of Leuret and Mitivie, the average frequency in 27 aged men was 73, and in 34 aged women 70. The average obtained by Drs. Hournann and Des chambre, by observations on 255 aged females, was 82. Dr. Pennock's averages are 72 for aged males, and 78 for aged females.
The general results deducible from the fore going tables, in reference to the influence of sex on the pulse, may be thus expressed : — I. The female pulse differs little from the male pulse during the first seven years of life ; but after seven years of age the mean pulse of the female exceeds that of the male by from 6 to 14 beats ; the average excess being 9 beats, The same remarks apply to this table as to former tables. The number of facts is not large enough to give a steady and progressive decrease from childhood to age ; but that the approximation to a true result is sufficiently close for all practical purposes may be in or about one-eighth of the mean frequency in the male.
2. The minimum frequency of tbe pulse of the female, at more than one period of life, falls below that of the male ; but its maximum frequency is, at all periods, above that of the male.
3. The range of the pulse in both sexes is considerable in the male it extends from 28' to 56, in the 'female from 32 to 68 beats, and it is probable that more numerous observa tions would extend this range still farther. The average range in the male is 43 ; in the female, 48.
4. For the purpose of assisting the memory, the average pulse of the adult male may be stated at 70, that of the adult female at 80.
The highest number is somewhat less than 100 in the adult male, and somewhat more than 110 in the adult female. The least number in each is about 50.
The lowest number recorded in the table, as occurring in healthy males, is 46, and in healthy females 52. These, however, are not the least nuinbers on record ; for Heberden counted 42, 30, and even 26 pulses in healthy males, the latter number in a man of 80 ; and Fordyce one case of 26, in an old man in the Charter-house, and another of 20. The writer, some years since, met with a pulse of 38 in a gentleman then and now in the en joyment of good, though not robust, health. The lowest number observed by Floyer was 55. Falconer counted a pulse of 36, and another of 24, in healthy females, and Dr. Graves records one of 38. Pulses as low as 16, or even 14 beats, have been counted ; but it is doubtful whether the persons in whom they occurred were healthy. Low frequencies of pulse observed in disease are beyond the scope of this essay. On the other hand, it is probable that extended observations would reveal the occasional occurrence in healthy persons of both sexes of higher frequencies of the pulse than any recorded in the tables.
Temperanient.— Nothing is at present known of the frequency' of the pulse as in fluenced by' temperament. The speculations of Floyer upon this subject are too fanciful, and have too little foundation in fact, to de serve a place among the sober results of ob servation.* The writer's experience would lead him to attach little importance to tem perament as a cause of variation in the pulse, as he has found high and low frequencies in men of the same temperament ; and some of the lowest pulses he has observed have been in males of opposite temperaments. It is not uncommon, too, to find pulses of very low frequency in persons of the sanguine tem perament, and in men remarkable for energy of character and nervous excitability. The strumous diathesis is often characterised by a feeble pulse of low frequency, while those who are subject to gout have, as a general rule, a stronger pulse of higher frequency. It is probable that, eceteris paribus, the large chest and muscular frame are accompanied by an infrequent, and the small chest and spare form by a frequent pulse. But the varying frequencies of the pulse observed in different subjects have yet to be submitted to that ex tended and searching observation by which alone the several concurrent causes can be successively eliminated, and the most influ ential circumstances displayed.