359 
2s ftrong as if there was no preffure. Credat 
Fudeus Apella! Till I have mylelf feena 
firm compreffion on the femoral artery 
with the finger, or any other fixed power, 
pbliterate the pulfation of the popliteal 
artery, and yet the blood rufh through 
that artery when divided, as freely as 
"when the preffure fhall have been re- 
moved, I fhail beg leave to doubt. I 
will not affront your readers by demon- 
firating, that fuch an affertion cannot be 
true. Mr. BELL muft have been deceived. 
If the fame quantity of blood paffed 
through the artery in a given time as be- 
fore, he could not have diminifhed its 
area by compreffion. ‘That the femoral 
artery, deeply feated as it is in its leaft 
covered part, and. imbedded in yield- 
ing, muicular, and cellular fubitance, 
fhould be much affected by the compreffion 
of the finger, is what indeed I fhould not 
@ priort have expefted; though Mr. 
BE vt himfelf, after having, as from his 
own experience, denied the poflibility, in 
the words which I have quoted, acknow- 
tedges,on a fubfequent occafion, page 456, 
that ‘* though it is not an eafy thing, it 
is, perhaps, not impoffible.** To obli- 
terate the pulfe below from compreffion 
above, Is, on many occafions, fufhciently 
eafy. Leaning the arm over the back of 
a chair will ftop the pulfe in the radial 
artery; and the fame thing has often 
been done by perfons, for fraudulent pur- 
pofes; merely by preffing the inward 
part of the humerus firongly againit the 
fide. The effect of a tourniquet in this 
fiew, even on the largeft arteries to which 
we have aécefs, is tolerably well known 
to Mr. BreLi; and I, who do not pro- 
fefs furgery, am acquainted with no cri- 
terion by which we are to judge that the 
purpofe of that inftrument has been an- 
fwered, but the failure of the pulfe in 
fome part, cr branch of the artery more 
diftant from the heart. It is pofiible that 
the flow of blood through the comprefled 
artery, is, in neither of thefe cafes, en- 
tirely impeded ; and whether the area of 
the carotid artery can be fo diminifhed 
by the preffure of the thumb, as to 
anfwer the purpofes of a furgical epera- 
tion, I will not pretend to decide ; and I 
prefume no one, except in a cafe of fudden 
neceffity, will be hardy enough to try. 
Tt is, however, true, that I have often 
moft evidently moderated bleeding at the 
nofe by imperfe&t preffure for a few 
feconds on one carotid; which is as 
much as can reafonably be expeéted by 
thofe, who confider that fome of the ar- 
terial branches diftributed within the nofe 
Dr. Parry on Mr. Bell’s Anatomy: 3 
are derived from the internal carotids; 
which anaitomofe with each other, and 
within the vertebral arteries with the 
cranium. Mr, BELL quotes Acrel, who 
fays, that he ftopped a hemorrhage of 
the temoral artery, after every other mea- 
fure had» failed, by ttrongly refting with 
his thumbs againft the external iliac in 
the groin, Page 456. The compreffion of 
the carotid is at leaft as praCticable as that 
of the external iliac artery, not only on 
account of the interpofition of very little 
foft fubftance, but becaufe the vertebrae 
of the neck form an extenfive, hard, and 
immoveable pillar, againft which the pref- 
fure may be made. 
That fome circulation continues in 
certain cafts of Syncope, whether from 
furgical operations, or other caufes, there 
is little doubt. I will not however admit 
that what Mr. BELL calls “a hyfterical 
faint,’ is a cafe of Syncope; the face in 
that ftate, is all the while more or lefs 
ruddy and warm, the refpiration free, the 
pulfe good, and the circulation in other 
refpects perfect; it is an example of 
ftupor, of the fame nature as that which 
follows the Epilepfy. I beg leave to 
point out to Mr. BELL, that this diftine- 
tion between thefe two cafes, founded on 
the actual phenomena, is a third inftance 
of fomething new to him under the fun. 
When I {poke of comprefling the carotid 
arteries, it was with a viewtofhew that 
manydifeafes arife from too great a momen= 
tum of the blood, through thole veffels inte 
the head; and I pointed out the effects which 
I had obferved from preffure on the caro- 
tids, and certain beneficial conclufions in 
practice, which had refulted from thofe ob- 
fervations. Whether I could entirely in- 
tercept the blood that paffed through the 
carotids to the head, or not, “was to me 
of no importance. For my purpoie it was 
fufficient, that I could intercept a confider- 
able part. All this Mr. Bexw does not 
appear to have underftood ; but, begging 
the queftion that the whole was a filly old 
tale, tantalizing by an affectation of 
novelty, proceeds to examine the merits of 
_ the operation, as it might be applied to 
‘Surgery, of which, at the time, I never 
thought. This irrefiftible direétion of all 
the ideas to one point, is often a very 
ferious malady. But when the objeét is 
innocent, the patient is fuffered to walk . 
abroad unattended. Every one has heard 
of Jedediah Buxton ; who, though unable 
either to read or write, multiplied nine 
and thirty figures into each other by 
memory only. In London, they took 
him to Drury Lane, and to St, Andrews 
