Anatomical and physiological observations. Pt. I / by John Struthers.

  • Struthers, John, 1823-1899.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anatomical and physiological observations. Pt. I / by John Struthers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    a child. The process is equally developed on both sides, but the ligament has been removed. On the right side, the undivided artery deviates and turns round the process. On the left, as in the other two instances, the radial artery arises above the middle of the arm, and continues downwards along the inner margin of the biceps, and the larger trunk (ulnar-interosseous) is removed to the inner side, and passes around the process. The number of the above instances is sufficiently great to ren- der the variety one of interest to the surgeon. It will be ob- served that in one-third of them there was a high division of the humeral artery, and that, whilst one of the trunks occupied the iisual position of the vessel, the other was removed consider- ably to its inner side; and in the remaining two-thirds, that the undivided tmnk was so situated, that it could scarcely have been reached by an incision made in the usual com'se of the artery. Further, at the bend of the elbow—as the pronator teres (or an additional muscular slip, which below joins the pronator) arises, in such a case, as high as from the ligamentous part of the arch —the artery is so overlapped or covered, that before it could be exposed here, some muscular fibres would require to be displaced or divided; although, it may be remarked, the circumstances usually requiring an operation upon this part of the vessel could scarcely occur, owing to its deep situation. It may be added, that the bony prominence was very readily felt before the dissection of the parts was begun, in the subjects in which it occurred in my rooms, even in the instance in which it was shortest; and the detection of this—in the preliminary examination, in a case where the operation was about to be per- formed—would, together with the situation of the pulsation, and the effect of pressure on the artery or arteries, at once indicate the existence of the variety in question to one who was aware of its occasional occurrence.^ 1 For farther observations on the supra-condyloid process, see Article XV.