In disease, the pulse may acquire a great degree of frequency. It may reach 150 or even 200, but in such cases it is generally feeble and can hardly be counted. Besides observing the frequency of the pulse, its character in other respects must be noted. IRREGULARITY OF THE PULSE generally indicates disease, and there are two varieties of it. In most instances of irregular pulse, succeeding beats differ in length, force and character; in the other variety a pulsation is from time to time left out; the pulse is said to intermit. In the DICROTIC PULSE a secondary wave or undulation can be felt. It is often met in typhoid fever, and an inexperienced person might be led to count double the number of beats. Another important quality of the pulse is its hardness or compressibility. The hard pulse ordinarily, though not always, indicates inflammation. This hard pulse may be known by pressing pretty hard with one finger, while we observe with the others whether we arrest or abolish the pulse. A pulse is said to be full or large if it is felt to strike a large portion of the finger; other departures from the normal standard are spoken of as soft, quick, or sharp, throbbing, bounding, thready, wiry, flickering, &c. OF THE TEMPERATURE. The normal standard of the temperature of a healthy person is 98.4°. There is some variation, and indeed a daily cycle of variations, so that in the morning it is 99 or at least 98½ and in the evening 97½, but the range is small, and if the variation is more than that, it is indicative of disease. There is only a deviation of about 15° within which life can be sustained; a temperature of more than 107° or less than 93° will almost certainly prove fatal. Every mother who can, as well as every nurse, ought to own a clinical thermometer, as thereby she may detect the beginning of a disorder before there are other marked signs of indisposition. She should use it upon the first suspicion of a departure from health and frequently afterwards, until she knows that the temperature is normal. An increase, especially if beginning each day a little earlier, is a bad indication; a decrease from a high temperature each day is a sign of improvement. In pneumonia and generally in such disorders as are initiated with a chill, the rise is sudden and rapid. In typhoid and some other fevers, the elevation is slight at first and gradually rises. The exacerbations and remissions or other deviations can only be recognized by taking the temperature frequently, and it should be taken at the same hour each day to exhibit the cycle of changes. An irregularity of temperature in the course of a disease that has a regular type may indicate a complication, or it may depend upon local causes, such as constipation, bad air, &c. The decline of fever and of temperature may be gradual, or it may drop to a steady normal within a few hours.