Greek Association of the History of Medicine

bifurcation of the carotid artery (carotid sinus) may provoke reflex bradycardia, fall of blood pressure and fainting.8 Hippocrates, Galen and Mattheus Curtius also observed that it was not the compression of the arteries in the neck, but of their bifurcation (carotid sinus) that might induce fainting or sleep. I therefore agree with the suggestion of Balourdas that ifthe old Greek physicians observed that compression of the arteries in the neck of man induced sleep, they did not perform compression of the arteries themselves but compressed the area of their bifurcation, the carotid sinus, and provoked a reflex fainting or sleep, in patients with a carotid sinus syndrome. The name 'carotis' has, therefore, its origin in the carotid sinus. Andreas Vesalius gives, in his Fabrica the names of 'arteriae soporariae' or 'arteriae soporiferae' and not 'arteriae carotideae' to the arteries in the neck. Carolus Stephanus uses the terms 'arteriae apoplecticae', or 'arteriae lethargicae', or 'arteriae somni' and the Latin translations of the works of Arabian anatomists have the name 'arteriae subetini', originating from the Arabic word subtat (stupor, sleep).5 It seems therefore that the first observation that compression of the arteries in the neck of man provoked sleep must have been made in a patient with a carotid sinus syndrome in whom compression or stimulation of the baroreceptors of the carotid sinus area could have provoked fainting or sleep. Greek Academy and the Council of Health. He received his medical training in the universities ofAthens, Vienna, Munich, Berlin and Bern and is a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology and child health. He was awarded a prize by the Institute of France for his scientific work and is a Member of the Academia Leopoldina. Dr.