Owing to the fact that the examination of the blood in infants offers considerable aid in diagnosis, and that blood has been shown to be an effective medium for the introduction of therapeutic fluids, it has been necessary to look for other means of entering the blood stream than through the jugular and scalp veins, which are not always accessible, and attempts to enter them quite frequently result in failures. This is especially true in some toxic conditions in which even the external jugular is not to be seen or palpated.
Marfan, in 1898, first employed the longitudinal sinus for the intravenous injection of salt solution. Tobler, in 1915, described in detail the anatomy and technic, and Helmholz of Chicago, in the same year, described a special apparatus, useful in transfusion into the longitudinal sinus.
From the anatomic point of view, the longitudinal sinus offers the most effective route for