I wish it comported with the proposed limits of this essay to illustrate and establish, by the recital of cases, the truth of these remarks upon the indications of bleeding from the pulse. It communicates much more knowledge of the state of the system than any other sign of disease. Its frequency (unconnected with its other states), being under the influence of diet, motion, and the passions of the mind, is of the least consequence. In counting the number of its strokes, we are apt to be diverted from attending to its irregularity and force; and in these, it should always be remembered, fever chiefly consists. The knowledge acquired by attending to these states of the pulse is so definite and useful, and the circumstances which seduce from a due attention to them are so erroneous in their indications, that I have sometimes wished the Chinese custom of prescribing, from feeling the pulse only, without seeing or conversing with the patient, were imposed upon all physicians. To render the knowledge of the indications of blood-letting, from the state of the pulse, as definite and correct as possible, I shall add, for the benefit of young practitioners, the following directions for feeling it. 1. Let the arm be placed in a situation in which all the muscles which move it shall be completely relaxed; and let it, at the same time, be free from the pressure of the body upon it. 2. Feel the pulse, in all obscure or difficult cases, in both arms. 3. Apply all the fingers of one hand, when practicable, to the pulse. For this purpose, it will be most convenient to feel the pulse of the right hand with your left, and of the left hand with your right. 4. Do not decide upon blood-letting, in difficult cases, until you have felt the pulse for some time. The Chinese physicians never prescribe until they have counted 49 strokes. 5. Feel the pulse at the intervals of four or five minutes, when you suspect that its force has been varied by any circumstance not connected with the disease, such as emotions of the mind, exercise, eating, drinking, and the like. 6. Feel the pulsations of the arteries in the temples and in the neck, when the pulse is depressed or imperceptible in the wrists. 7. Request silence in a sick room, and close your eyes, in feeling a pulse in difficult cases. By so doing, you will concentrate the sensations of your ears and eyes, in your fingers. In judging of the states of the pulse which have been enumerated, it will be necessary always to remember the natural difference, in its frequency and force, in old people and children; also in the morning and evening, and in the sleeping and waking states of the system.