should always be employed, I feel bound to offer aprotest. While there can be no objection whatever against any one who finds a difficulty in this respect availing himself of such scientific aids, and while they are useful for recording purposes, I maintain that these conditions can, as a rule, be adequately realised and studied by the fingers, provided that they are applied and utilised in the proper way, and that the tactile sense has been properly educated and trained. In one of the previous Harveian Orations the tactus eruditus was referred to somewhat in terms of ridicule, but I hope we still have some faith in it. It must be borne in mind that the average medical student has to be prepared for the ordinary duties of general practice, and it may be confidently affirmed that, even if he were acquainted with their uses, circumstances would prevent him from employing scientific appliances for investigating the pulse on any large scale. Therefore, I submit that it would be an evil day for our profession, if those who are being trained for its active work were led to believe that the senses with which nature has endowed them can be of little or no service, and therefore not worth educating, and that they are bound of necessity to avail themselves of such artificial aids to diagnosis.
It must not be forgotten that other arteries besides the radial may call for examination, not only in themselves, but also in relation to cardiac diseases.
