1820.] Dr. Young on the Ligature of the Carotid Arteries. 427 



snow, the frost penetrated about 14 or 15 inches below the 

 surface. 



The weather was extremely foggy, and snow fell copiously, 

 with a gradual rif mg of the barometer during the first week. 

 The mean daily temperature generally fluctuated between 20^^ 

 and 30° till the 20th, when there was a great rise as already 

 observed in the fourth week. The maximum of 53° took place 

 about two o'clock on the 28th ; in the course of the following- 

 night, the temperature fell to 34°, which marked the greatest 

 daily variation for the month. 



The east and south-east have been the prevailing winds ; the 

 brisk winds were variable ; and the boisterous one from the north- 

 east. 



Article V. 



Ow the Ligature of the Carotid Arteries as a Remedy for Deter- 

 mination of Blood to the Head. By C. R. Young, M.D. 



The tying of tlve carotid arteries in order to moderate a 

 determination of blood to the head seems at once so simple and 

 obvious a remedy for this disorder, that 1 am inclined to think it 

 must have suggested itself long ago to the faculty, and that 

 some weighty reasons can be opposed against the employment 

 of it ; or that it has been already tried and rejected for special 

 reasons. But as my reading and information are not sufficient 

 to assure me of these facts, 1 venture to make the proposal with. 

 a due sense of my own ignorance and inexperience, and with, 

 every sentiment of respect and deference for the wisdom and 

 knowledge of others. 



There is, 1 believe, in all or most graminivorous animals, which, 

 are forced to procure their food by grazing with their heads 

 much lower than the rest of their bodies, a piece of structure in 

 those arteries which corresponds to the carotids in the human 

 species, by which the determination of the blood to the heads 

 of these animals is prevented ; for considering the time which 

 they employ in taking in their food, this aftection could hardly 

 fail to occur in them were no such apparatus furnished by nature. 

 This consists in a convolution of the arteries, by which the impe- 

 tus of the blood coming from the heart must be much broken, 

 ^^ow is it not reasonable to expect that if by any means we could 

 imitate this device of nature, in cases of determination of blood 

 to the head in the human species, that a beneficial result might 

 be obtained ? Let us suppose that one of the carotid arteries 

 were tied (for as in many cases there is evidence of a much 

 stronger determination to one hemisphere of the brain than to the 



