Pulsatile
(Pul"sa*tile) a. [Cf. It. pulsatile, Sp. pulsatil.]
1. Capable of being struck or beaten; played by beating or by percussion; as, a tambourine is a pulsatile
musical instrument.
2. Pulsating; throbbing, as a tumor.
Pulsatilla
(||Pul`sa*til"la) n. [NL.] (Bot.) A genus of ranunculaceous herbs including the pasque flower.
This genus is now merged in Anemone. Some species, as Anemone Pulsatilla, Anemone pratensis,
and Anemone patens, are used medicinally.
Pulsation
(Pul*sa"tion) n. [L. pulsatio a beating or striking: cf. F. pulsation.]
1. (Physiol.) A beating or throbbing, especially of the heart or of an artery, or in an inflamed part; a
beat of the pulse.
2. A single beat or throb of a series.
3. A stroke or impulse by which some medium is affected, as in the propagation of sounds.
4. (Law) Any touching of another's body willfully or in anger. This constitutes battery.
By the Cornelian law, pulsation as well as verberation is prohibited.
Blackstone. Pulsative
(Pul"sa*tive) a. [Cf. F. pulsatif.] Beating; throbbing.
Pulsator
(Pul*sa"tor) n. [L.]
1. A beater; a striker.
2. (Mech.) That which beats or throbs in working.
Pulsatory
(Pul"sa*to*ry) a. [Cf. F. pulsatoire.] Capable of pulsating; throbbing. Sir H. Wotton. .
Pulse
(Pulse) n. [OE. puls, L. puls, pultis, a thick pap or pottage made of meal, pulse, etc. See Poultice,
and cf. Pousse.] Leguminous plants, or their seeds, as beans, pease, etc.
If all the world
Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse.
Milton. Pulse
(Pulse), n. [OE. pous, OF. pous, F. pouls, fr. L. pulsus (sc. venarum), the beating of the
pulse, the pulse, from pellere, pulsum, to beat, strike; cf. Gr. to swing, shake, to shake. Cf. Appeal,
Compel, Impel, Push.]
1. (Physiol.) The beating or throbbing of the heart or blood vessels, especially of the arteries.
In an artery the pulse is due to the expansion and contraction of the elastic walls of the artery by the
action of the heart upon the column of blood in the arterial system. On the commencement of the diastole
of the ventricle, the semilunar valves are closed, and the aorta recoils by its elasticity so as to force
part of its contents into the vessels farther onwards. These, in turn, as they already contain a certain
quantity of blood, expand, recover by an elastic recoil, and transmit the movement with diminished intensity.
Thus a series of movements, gradually diminishing in intensity, pass along the arterial system (see the
Note under Heart). For the sake of convenience, the radial artery at the wrist is generally chosen to
detect the precise character of the pulse. The pulse rate varies with age, position, sex, stature, physical
and psychical influences, etc.
