Note 11 — Chapter VIII · Harvey’s Anatomical Works

Cardinal Nicholas de Cusa [Cusanus] is said to have counted the pulse by a clock about the middle of the sixteenth century, but Dr. Norman Moore points out to me that in reality he counted the water-clock, then in use, by the pulse. The number of pulse-beats was not measured by means of a watch until after the publication, in 1707, of Sir John Floyer’s book, “The Physician’s Pulse-watch, or an Essay to explain the old art of feeling the Pulse.” In the time of Harvey and long afterwards physicians contented themselves with estimating the character of the pulse, rather than its precise rate.