596 



vision into median-cephalic and median-basilic sometimes taking place 

 even as low down as the middle of the forearm. 



It is thus sufficiently clear that it is more accurate to describe 

 a longitudinally coursing V. cephalica than a more medially situated 

 median vein. * 



The V. basilica. The V. basilica is described by Spalteholz 

 as commencing "upon the back of the hand, frequently as the conti- 

 nuation of the V. metacarpea dorsalis IV, loops around the ulnar side 

 of the forearm to its volar surface and runs on this as far as the 

 elbow, then in the sulcus bicipitalis medialis along the upper arm as 

 far as its middle third. There it perforates the fascia, goes still some 

 distance upwards and unites sooner or later with one of the (more 

 delicate) Vv. brachiales". The vein comprises what were formerly de- 

 scribed as the posterior ulnar and basilic veins. In the forearm the 

 V. basilica is of smaller size than the cephalic, but in the arm the 

 reverse is the case. 



As regards the origin of the V. basilica we do not agree with the 

 statement that it commences "frequently as the continuation of the V. 

 metacarpea dorsalis IV". We never found such an origin, in the 

 contrary, in 100°/o of our cases the V. basilica commenced as a direct 

 continuation of the ulnar end of the arcus venosus dorsalis. It is per- 

 fectly true that this continuity was not always of sufficiently large 

 size as to constitute the main outlet of the blood stream from the 

 arch, for in some 47*^/0 the V. basilica was very small at its origin 

 and the main outflow of blood from the ulnar end of the arch was 

 switched over to the V. cephalica by the oblique vein previously de- 

 scribed, but in all the remaining percentage the V. basilica did actu- 

 ally form the main outlet of the arcus venosus dorsalis. 



The course of the V. basilica we found to be remarkably constant 

 as was also the termination in it, near the elbow, of the V. mediana 

 cubiti. Less frequently, in some 43°]o the V. mediana antebrachii ter- 

 minated in the V. basilica, and as a very rare variation, the V. ce- 

 phalica in one individual as previously described. This last apparently 

 very rare variation is of some interest in view of the fact that A. 

 Stocquart has described a case of bilateral absence of the cephalic 

 vein in man in a publication which is not available to us in Mel- 

 bourne (8). 



The termination of the V. basilica being deeply situated did not 

 fall within the province of the present investigation, but it has been 

 worked out in 44 cases by Carle (9) who found that in 35 of his 

 cases the V. basilica passed into the V. axillaris without any line of 



