102 REPORT— 1839. 



to the body, without its being, at the same time, respired. Dr. Bird 

 related some experiments of Dr. A. T. Thomson, in which the pain of 

 inflamed surfaces was instantly removed on their being plunged into 

 carbonic acid. He dwelt on the pathological effects of the gas as ex- 

 hibited after death, and concluded by pressing the importance of mi- 

 nute post mortem examinations in every case of death from this cause 

 coming under the notice of medical men*. 



On the Rules for finding with exactness the Position of the Principal 

 Arteries and Nerves from their Relation to the External Form of the 

 Body. By Dr. Macartney. 



Painters and sculptors have laid down, for the improvement of their 

 arts, the proportions which belong to the external figure of the human 

 body, and in doing so have demonstrated a very interesting fact, namely, 

 that these proportions are in general regulated according to the primary 

 relations of duplicates or thirds, and the multiples of these. Dr. Mac- 

 artney has discovered that a similar law of proportion prevails with 

 respect to the internal parts of the body, more particularly with regard 

 to the course of the trunks of arteries and nerves in relation to the li- 

 mits of the external form. Sometimes these parts take a middle line 

 along the limb for some distance, as may be observed in the trunk of the 

 sciatic nerve, but more frequently they occupy lines dividing the ex- 

 ternal form into thirds, or proceed from the median line of one side of 

 an extremity to the middle of the opposite side, or they may pass from 

 the middle to the division into thirds, or from a point placed on a line 

 dividing the external form into three equal parts, and then approaching 

 the middle so as to form with the fellow two parts of a triangle. Let 

 us take for instance the course of the arteries in the superior extremity. 

 The subclavian artery first passes obliquely behind the middle of the 

 anterior curvature of the clavicle, to the middle of the axilla. The 

 brachial artery proceeds from the middle of the axilla, to gain a line 

 dividing the inner third from the two outer thirds of the upper arm, 

 and ending in the middle position in the bend of the arm. The radial 

 artery is properly the continuation of the trunk, and passes under a 

 line drawn from the centre of the fold of the arm to arrive at the place 

 where we feel the pulse, which is on a division of the external form of 

 the wrist into fourth parts, or the duplicates of two. The ulnar artery 

 pursues almost exactly a similar course on the opposite side of the fore 

 arm, and the inter-osseous takes a middle line. The superficial palmar 

 arch corresponds in its greatest extent to a line dividing the palm into 

 two equal parts, and the deep-seated arch exists under a line v/hich 

 would divide the upper third of the palm from the two lower thirds. 



The occipital arteries, after they emerge from the muscles, furnish 

 us with an example of vessels proceeding from the division of the ex- 

 ternal form into thirds, towards the median line of the head. 



* Dr. Bird's Essay has been published at length in the Guy's Hospital Re- 

 ports for October 1 839. 



