Excerpt from The Anatomy of the Arteries of the Human Body, and Its Application to Pathology and Operative Surgery: With a Series of Lithographic Drawings

Several years have elapsed since I became impressed with the belief that the difficulties which have often occurred in the performance of those surgical Operations in which the larger arteries are concerned, have arisen in great part from want bf sufficient acquaintance with the differences in anatomical disposition to which these vessels are subject - not merely the deviations in the origin of large branches, which are usually named varieties, but other peculiarities of various kinds which are liable to occur, such as those which affect the length, position, or direction of the vessels. Under that impression I was led to observe these circumstances more closely, and finally determined to obtain a record of the con dition, whatever it might be, of the more important vessels in a considerable number of cases.

With this view, I examined with more or less attention the bodies which were received during a series of years for the study of anatomy into the School of Medicine in University College. These bodies, to the number of 1040, were, with rare exceptions, so inspected with reference to the subject of my inquiries, that anything very unusual could not escape notice; and, in order to insure accuracy, when other occupations allowed, the arteries were carefully examined and their con dition noted at the time, -attention being always particularly directed to those vessels and to the points in their history which seemed to be of importance in the practice of surgery.

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