The Inventory of John Hexham, a Fifteenth-century Apothecary.

Now mark (6i) also further: if the artery is small and from day to day and from beat to beat gets bigger (62) and increases in size, that means an improving constitution. However, if it shrinks and the sick man weakens (63) from day to day and has fever, the man is fatally ill beyond a (64) doubt. But if the man improves so that he sleeps well and (65) gets stronger, and the fever lessens and the artery beats softly and slowly, (66) that is a good sign. It means that the battle of the disease against (67) nature is over and life has won. You should note that when (68) the artery gets so weak that you can scarcely feel it and it beats very rapidly (col. 2, line i) and quivers, sickness is nigh. You should also know (2) that under excessive heat or sickness the artery wastes away so that one cannot (3) determine whether it means life or death; I will (4) tell you how. If the man's urine is clear (5) and not black up in the neck (of the flask) but rather having been red or black later (6) becomes clear, and the clouds in the urine are white and they sink (7) together, then you may be sure that the man will get well. In the (8) same way if you cannot feel the artery of a man who is hot and sick (g) and his urine is dirty-black, pale, or green-this man will (io) die. If a man's nature is fat and (Ii) his face is flushed and yet not so fat as to be swollen, (I2) and neither too thin nor too pale around the mouth, and when the pulse beats (I3) neither too fast nor too slow and the urine is neither too white nor too red (14) nor too thin, that indicates a well man.