The arterial system; its influence on the heart and circulation

From antiquity the arterial pulse was associated with life, and its absence with death. The pulse was considered to carry vital information on the state of health, and was a central part of the physical examination in Chinese, Greek and Arabian medicine [1]. Untold numbers of paintings show the physician feeling the radial artery pulse – though rarely conducting any other sort of examination.The Roman physician Galen (AD ?130–?200), had a strong influence on this field for over fifteen hundred years. He wrote voluminously on the pulse in a series of tomes that came to assume huge influence in subsequent years – though not at the time of his life [1]. It appears that he was a loner, and not one of influence among contemporary colleagues. He had no pupils, acolytes or disciples. His characterisation of pulses was incomprehensible. But it survived unquestioned until the time of William Harvey [2].