I asked a famous surgeon once which would kill a man the quicker: severance of the carotid artery or the jugular vein?

A, superior vena cava; B, right auricle; C, right ventricle; D, left ventricle; E, left auricle; F, pulmonary vein; H, pulmonary artery; K, aorta; L, right subclavian artery; M, right common carotid artery; N, left common carotid artery.

A, superior vena cava; B, right auricle; C, right ventricle; D, left ventricle; E, left auricle; F, pulmonary vein; H, pulmonary artery; K, aorta; L, right subclavian artery; M, right common carotid artery; N, left common carotid artery.

These are the two carotid arteries, which run up on each side of the neck to the head, and the two subclavian arteries, which pass beneath the collar bone to the arms.

The throb of the two carotid arteries may be plainly felt by pressing the thumb and finger backwards on each side of the larynx.

81.Showing the Carotid Artery and Jugular Vein on the Right Side, with Some of their Main Branches.

A, left ventricle; B, right ventricle; C, left auricle; D, right auricle; E, superior vena cava; F, pulmonary artery; G, aorta; H, arch of the aorta; K, innominate artery; L, right common carotid artery; M, right subclavian artery; N, thyroid cartilage forming upper portion of the larynx; O, trachea.

Windpipe, food-pipe, carotid, jugular, half a dozen smaller, but still formidable, vessels, a great braid of nerves, each as big as a lamp-wick, spinal cord,ought to kill at once, if at all.

CAROTID ARTERIES, 315.

[Footnote 1: Vide Carotid Compression and Brain Rest, by J.L. Corning, M.D. New York: Anson D.F. Randolph & Co.]

Two years ago I began a series of experiments on epileptics and maniacs, which involved the application of protracted pressure to the common carotid artery on both sides.

In the course of these experiments the thought suggested itself that suppression of the carotids might prove a salutary means of reducing that form of cerebral congestion which is so prolific a source of headache and vertigo.

The instruments which I have devised as substitutes for the primitive procedure of digital compression of the carotids have already been described in former communications.

It is only necessary to say that the implements in question are of two kinds; one, the "carotid fork," is an adjustable instrument, which being held in the hand of the operator permits him to exert any degree of pressure upon both carotids for any desired length of time.

It is only necessary to say that the implements in question are of two kinds; one, the "carotid fork," is an adjustable instrument, which being held in the hand of the operator permits him to exert any degree of pressure upon both carotids for any desired length of time.

The other instrument, which I have designated as the "carotid truss," for lack of a better name, is a circular spring provided with adjustable pads at each extremity.

The spring is placed about the neck of the patient, and by suitable appliances the pads at the extremities can be placed directly above the trunks of the two common carotid arteries.

Indeed, pressure upon the carotids is an excellent method of differentiating the congestive form of headache from the nervous varieties of head pains.

In hyperæmic headache cupping and blood-letting have been recommended; but as a rule both procedures are not only unnecessary but positively inadmissible, as exclusion of the superfluous amount of blood by compression upon the carotids, followed by a corresponding dilatation of the peripheral circulation by means of the foot-bath, will almost always be sufficient to cause a permanent cessation of the symptoms.

The bearded man saved himself by a quick turn, and with a great heave of his shoulders broke the detective's grip, then suddenly he attacked, smiting for the neck, not with clenched fist but with the open hand held sideways in the treacherous cleaving blow that the Japanese use when they strike for the carotid.

The carotid was tied, but the operation failed to stop the hemorrhage, and I found the surgeons relieving each other every quarter of an hour in holding a pledget of lint on the wound, in a determined effort to save the man's life if it were physically possible.

Nothing prevented him from severing his carotid artery but the recollection that only the vulgar thus disposed of themselves.

Now I was at the angle of the jaw, and as the ringing blade swept over the skin I traced the edge of the strap-like muscle and mentally marked the spot where it crossed the great carotid artery.

"He glared at me with such furious suspicion that I instinctively opened my scissors and looked at the neighborhood of his carotid.