Library › Greek: Science & Medicine › On Pulses (Fragment)
On Pulses is a short anonymous fragment on the pulse from the Greek medical tradition of late antiquity. It defines the pulse as a movement of the arteries, outward in diastole and inward in systole. Diastole draws in outside air to maintain a proper balance of heat, and systole expels smoky waste. It recommends feeling the pulse at the wrist and begins to discuss large and rapid pulses as signs of danger before the text breaks off.
Diagnosis by the pulse was one of the most developed parts of Greek medicine, set out at length by Galen, and brief summaries of his doctrine circulated widely in later centuries. This fragment gives a compact example of that teaching: the pulse is explained through the balance of innate heat, and its changes are treated as signs for prognosis.
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