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bourne, do not contain a single paper dealing with the arrangement of 

 the superficial veins of the superior extremity as studied on the living 

 subject. For these several reasons we decided to institute such an 

 enquiry and to examine a sufficiently large number of cases as to 

 justify some reasonably correct conclusions being derived from the same. 



With these objects we have examined the superficial veins of the 

 superior extremity on 300 living adult males, male subjects being 

 chosen exclusively for the reason that in them the veins show up 

 much better than in the female. The subjects were in 280 instances 

 derived from the outpatient department of the Melbourne Hospital, 

 the remaining 20 were students of Medicine in the university of Mel- 

 bourne. 



The subjects were, in every instance, Caucasian, that is, either 

 Australian born whites of British extraction, or British born resident 

 in Australia. 



The procedure adopted was the usual one of keeping the limb in 

 a dependent position with simultaneous muscular contraction, and then 

 bandaging the distended veins. 



Commencing the venous return from the fingers we found the 

 facts given in Spalteholz's well known "Handatlas" (4), or the fourth 

 edition of Morris's "Treatise on Anatomy" (5) perfectly accurate; the 

 blood passed along the Vv. digitales dorsales propriae, the arcus venosi 

 digitales, the venae intercapitulares, on the dorsal side, and along the 

 "Vv. digitales volares propriae and the venae intercapitulares on the 

 volar side. 



On the dorsal side of the hand the vascular arrangement described 

 by Spalteholz is that "from the union of every pair of these arches 

 (that is, the digital venous arches), arise four larger Vv. metacarpeae 

 dorsales; these form the Rete venosum dorsale manus, the meshes of 

 which are elongated in the direction of the long axis of the limb". The 

 V. basilica is subsequently described by this author as the continuation 

 of the V. metacarpea dorsalis IV, and the V. cephalica from the V. 

 metacarpea dorsalis I. 



Contrasting this description of Spalteholz — a very typical 

 B.N.A. description — with that given in Cunningham's 1906 edition 

 of his "Text Book of Anatomy" we read therein that the three dorsal 

 interosseous or interdigital veins (Vv. metacarpae dorsales) "terminate 

 in a dorsal venous arch or dorsal venous plexus; the radial or outer 



vein of the index finger ends in the same arch The arch lies 



opposite the lower parts of the shafts of the four inner metacarpal 

 bones, and terminates at its radial end in the superficial radial vein, 



