591 



Nachdruck verboten. 



A Study of the superficial Veins of the superior Extremity in 



300 living Subjects. 



By Richard J. A. Berry, M.D., Professor of Anatomy in the University 



of Melbourne, and 



H. A. S. Newton, Student of Medicine in the University of Melbourne 



and formerly Prosector and Exhibitioner in Anatomy. 



With 5 Figures. 



Those who have studied the descriptions of the superficial veins 

 of the upper extremity as given in Quain's Anatomy (1), issued prior 

 to the publication of the Basle Nomina anatomica, in Cunningham's 

 "Text Book of Anatomy" (2), or in Gray's "Anatomy, descriptive and 

 surgical" (3), which have either not adopted at all, or only partially 

 so, the nomenclature of the Basle commission of 1895, and contrasted 

 such descriptions with the similar ones given in works adopting, in their 

 entirety the B.N.A, nomenclature, such as Spalteholz's "Handatlas 

 der Anatomie" (4), Morris's "Treatise on Anatomy" (5), Krause's 

 "Handbucn der Anatomie" (6), or Corning's "Lehrbuch" (7), must have 

 been struck with the very marked dissimilarity between the two de- 

 scriptions. In the former, the chief feature is the M-shaped arrange- 

 ment of the superficial veins in front of the elbow, whilst in the latter 

 the chief feature is the existence of two veins, directed longitudinally 

 along the whole length of the limb, the Vv. cephalica et basilica. 



Quite apart from this discrepancy of description, which seemed 

 to us to justify an investigation into the whole subject, there is the 

 added fact that even if we assume, what may be termed the pre- Basle 

 description to be the more accurate of the two, the N-shaped arrange- 

 ment of the veins in front of the elbow is known to be extremely vari- 

 able, which would in itself justify an investigation. Lastly, there is 

 the somewhat remarkable fact that such well known Anatomical jour- 

 nals as the "Journal of Anatomy and Physiology", the "American 

 Journal of Anatomy", the "Anatomischer Anzeiger", the "Archiv für 

 Anatomie und Entwickelungsgeschichte", and the 18 volumes of the 

 "Verhandlungen der Anatomischen Gesellschaft" available to us in Mel- 



