ON THE MEDIAN ANTERIOR CEREBRAL ARTERY AS 

 FOUND AMONG THE INSANE 



I. W. BLACKBURN 



From the Government Hospital for the Insane, Washington, D. C. 



WITH SIX FIGURES 



The subject of anomalies of the cerebral arteries among the 

 insane has received considerable attention in the past, especially 

 noteworthy being the article by Bullen in the Journal of Mental 

 Science, volume 36, 1890, 1 but unfortunately comparative statis- 

 tics are meagre. In 1907 I made a study of the conditions of 

 development of the encephalic arteries in 220 consecutive cases of 

 mental diseases, making a comparison with the studies of Windle 3 

 in 200 cases of those presumably sane. The results of this com- 

 parison seemed to show a decided predominance, in general, of 

 anomalous conditions among the mentally diseased. 3 



In the study above mentioned' being chiefly concerned with 

 the anomalies of the circle of Willis, sufficiently careful studies 

 of other arteries were not made, and as a result, the anomalous 

 vessel which forms the subject of this paper was not as frequently 

 found as subsequent observations show is probably the fact. This 

 artery is found of course among the sane as well as the insane. 

 My studies, however, are based upon the examination of 400 con- 

 secutive cases of mental disease examined with special reference 

 to this vessel. In all of the text books of anatomy at my com- 



'Bullen. Post mortem Examination of the Brain, etc. Journal of Mental 

 Science, vol. 36, 1890. 



2 Windle. On the Circle of Willis. Reports of the British Medical Association, 

 for 1887. New York Medical Journal, vol. 2, 1888, and Journal of Anatomy and 

 Psysiology, 1887-1888. 



2 Blackburn. Anomalies of the Encephalic Arteries among the Insane. Jour- 

 nal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, vol. 17, no. 6, 1907. 



