When there is a succession of pulsations which diminish in magnitude regularly, such a system of pulses is called myuri, that is to say, _decurtate_ or _sharp-tailed_, from their supposed resemblance to the tapering tail of a mouse. Those who are acquainted with the Scholiast on Hephæstion, and the other ancient writers on prosody, will readily recognize a term with which they are familiar. Galen inclines to the opinion that this state of the artery is connected with an intemperament of the portion where the expansion is limited. Of these pulses, some end in complete asphyxia, and hence are called _swooning_, _failing_, or _fainting_ myuri, (Le Clerc renders it by _le myurus defaillant_;) and others again gradually recover their former magnitude, and are called _recurrent myuri_. Nearly allied to these are the _innuentes et circumnuentes_, for which it is scarcely possible to find any appropriate term in English. Le Clerc thus renders and explains this pulse, in French: “Le myurus _qui va en baissant de côté et d’autre_, c’est a dire qui frappe moins sensiblement le premier et le dernier doigt que celui ou ceux du milieu.” It consists, as Avicenna explains, of a double myurus, which swells out in the middle, and diminishes at both extremities. It was therefore a sort of double inclined plane. The myurus, and the innuens et circumnuens, are thus described by Haly Abbas: “Est autem et in hac specie unius pulsationis pulsus qui _muris cauda_ appellatur; quique inclinus vocatur pulsus. Et qui muris cauda vocatur fit cum arteria dilatatur sub primo digito qui a superioribus est grossa, et sub secundo minus grossa, sub tertio parva, sub quarto minima. _Inclinus_ autem pulsus est qui sub duobus mediis movetur digitis grossus et sub extremis hinc et inde subtilis et tenuis; aut medium ejus elatum est, et extremitates demissæ, videturque tangenti arteriæ extrema ad inferiora declinari.” Sprengel appears to think that the _pulsus inclinus_ of Haly Abbas is one first described by him, but there can be no doubt of its being identical with the _innuens et circumnuens_ (νενυκὼς καὶ περινενευκὼς) of Galen’s system. It is likewise the same as the _pulsus inclinatus_ of Rhases, who says it occurs in hectic fevers and consumption. Galen attempts to explain this pulse by referring it to weakness of the vessel and an unequal wasting of the parts around, which convey the impression, when several fingers are applied together, as if the vessel swelled out in the middle. (De Diff. Puls. ii.) In the _spasmodic_ pulse, the artery is said to convey the sensation of a string or cord tightly stretched, which, when touched, starts from its place. It seems to be the _pulsus tortuosus_ of Alsaharavius, and is commonly met with when convulsions are impending.