The tourniquet is a less manageable and not more certain compressor of the arterial trunk than is the hand of an intelligent assistant. At every region of the course of an artery where the tourniquet is applicable, a sufficient compression by the hand is also attainable with greater ease to the patient; and the hand may compress the vessel at certain regions where the tourniquet would be of little or no use, or attended with inconvenience, as in the locality of the subclavian artery, passing over the first rib, or the femoral artery, passing over the pubic bone, or the carotid vessels in the neighbourhood of the trachea, as they lie on the fore part of the cervical spinal column.
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES 11 & 12.
PLATE 11.
A. Subclavian vein, crossed by a branch of the brachial plexus given to the subclavius muscle; a, the axillary vein; a *, the basilic vein, having the internal cutaneous nerve lying on it.
B. Subclavian artery, lying on F, the first rib; b, the axillary artery; b *, the brachial artery, accompanied by the median nerve and venae comites.
C. Brachial plexus of nerves; c*, the median nerve.
D. Anterior scalenus muscle.
E. Subclavius muscle.
F F. First rib.
G. Clavicular attachment of the deltoid muscle.