Borden speaks of the terms _formicans_, _myurus_, and _caprizans_ as having been justly banished from our modern nomenclatures. But it may be doubted whether it be from superior information or from ignorance that we have rejected these nice distinctions. Some of these terms were in use long before the time of Galen, (he mentions that Herophilus used the term _dorcadissans_,) and for more than a thousand years afterwards the characters of the pulse to which they were applied were acknowledged as real; and, on a matter depending solely upon experience and observation, the concurring suffrages of so many ages must be admitted to be entitled to some consideration. That many of the Greek and Arabian physicians were men of great learning and of much practical skill in medicine cannot admit of a doubt; and therefore their opinions ought not to be hastily rejected as visionary and unfounded. Galen, indeed, expresses in strong terms the difficulty which he found in defining accurately the states of the artery to which the terms we are treating of are applied, and warns the reader that such characters are to be detected only by a person well experienced in the art of feeling pulses, which he pronounces to be one not easily attained. (Synops. viii.) Alsaharavius insists strongly on the necessity of having a nice sense of touch, and that it be well cultivated in order to attain the tact of feeling pulses properly. Haly Abbas and Actuarius in like manner state the difficulty and importance of the art of feeling pulses. It is to be borne in mind that the ancients performed the operation of feeling the pulse more methodically than is now generally done, which may in part account for our having lost sight of some of the nicer shades of distinction which they recognized. It is worthy of remark, further, that the truly learned and experienced Prosper Alpinus recognized and described these characters of the pulse which we have been treating of. (De pr. Vit. et Morte ægrot.) Whoever will consult Galen’s treatises on the pulse will find discussed in them many subtle questions which are now seldom thought of. For example, he enters into a disquisition whether or not we can perceive the systole of the artery. He informs us that Agathinus had denied and Herophilus affirmed the possibility of this. He, after having, as he says, examined the matter fully, agrees with the latter. (De Dignosc. Puls. i, 3.) Psellus gives the characters of the pulses in not inelegant politic verses. A very clear and satisfactory description of them is given in the short treatise of Theophilus Protospatharius.