Note R — Chapter IV · LABORATORY TESTS

Slight head movements accompanying the pulse-beat were until recently regarded as the symptom of certain diseases of the vascular system (the so-called symptom of Nusset), but H. Frenkel has now shown them to exist also in normal individuals.[19] I myself discovered such movements (lateral as well as sagittal) more or less pronounced in all the curves obtained from my subjects. The most striking case was that of a young physician whose circulatory system was perfectly healthy. In most instances I was able to note these oscillatory movements directly and to count them without much difficulty. For purposes of control the radial pulse was always determined at the same time. The observation of the phenomenon appears to be especially easy in the case of somewhat full-blooded individuals.