Relatively few investigators have studied the suprarenal arteries in man, or the inferior phrenic vessels from which these glandular branches arise in greatest number.2
The series of 74 cadavers presented by Adachi ('28) is the largest available. In 18 specimens (16 male, 2 female) a common trunk gave rise to the inferior arteries of the two sides; this unpaired trunk was derived from the aorta in 11, from the coeliac artery in 6, and from the left gastric in 1. I n 56 bodies (43 male, 13 female) each origin of the inferior phrenic was independent; these origins were from the aorta on 40 sides (7 bilateral, 17 right, 9 left), from the coeliac on 56 (16 bilateral, 4 right, 20 left), from the renal on 9 (all right sides), from the hepatic (left branch) in 2 (1 right, 1 left), Contribution no. 320 from the Anatomical Laboratory of Northwestern University Medical School. 'Studies of the coeliac axis have been published by Walther (1729)' Haller (1743)' Monguidi (1893)' Rossi and Cova ('04)' Leriche and Villemin ('07)' Robinson ('08)' Descomps ( J10)7 Piquand ('lo), Rio Branco ('12), Lipshutz ('17)' Eaton ('17)' Adachi ('28) and Dieulaf6 and Cahuzae ('31); with rare examples, by Dupuis and Barnay (1874), Thane (1888)' Tyrie ( 1894), Vincens ( '10) and Roma6a ( '37). In classification of types of axis branching the inferior phrenic artery is disregarded, although Rossi and Cova, Descomps, Piquand, Lipshutz and Adachi consider the vessel separately as a collateral of the coeliac artery. George ( '35), Bloch and Miehon ( '22) correlated the site of emergence of the coeliac axis with the vertebral levels.
The history of discovery and naming of the coeliac axis is discussed by Rio Braneo ('12), the embryology by Tandler ('04, '09)' Evans ('12)' and Bremer ( '24, '26) and the comparative anatomy by Theile (1852), Wittmann (1891), Sieber ( '03)' aossi and Cova ( '04) and Fransen ( '07).