In the matter of the value of personal services the question is often raised: “Which is the more important part of the work in our profession, directing and managing the funeral or the embalming and care of the body.” In answer to this let me say that the care and the embalming of the body is first importance because the law says so, because the education of the embalmer is paramount to other considerations and so regarded by the national association, because sanitary science demands it, because without a body properly embalmed and prepared for burial the funeral is a failure from whatever standpoint you wish to judge it. A director may bungle the arrangements and at the most it is but a matter of annoyance to the family. However, let him fail to properly fit and prepare the body so that the relatives can see restored to them the face of their beloved one, beautified in the last long sleep of death, and they will never forgive him. They secured his services first as an embalmer and incidentally as a director of the funeral, naturally, therefore, the greater importance of his work centers around his services to the family in that capacity. Now in all candor, why should he not make a specific charge for his work? He is rendering the greater service in caring for the body, it should be the first item charged for on the funeral bill. CHAPTER XVI. THE ANATOMICAL AND LINEAR GUIDES FOR SPECIAL ARTERIES. =How to Locate and Inject the Carotid Artery.=—The carotid artery, is not used much, by the average embalmer for several reasons. It is usually a hard artery to raise, partly because the average embalmer does not know the anatomy of the neck. In subjects having short and very fleshy necks it is not advisable to use the carotid, however in subjects where the neck is long and not fat it is with some a favorite. It is always essential to know how to raise and inject the carotid for in accident cases, where the arteries of the lower part of the neck and thorax are ruptured it becomes necessary to raise and inject the carotids to get the fluid into the tissues of the face and brain. In cases of suicide where the arteries of the neck have been cut it is necessary to know where the arteries and veins lie so that they may be tied off. Often the body is so badly mutilated that it is impossible to raise any other artery excepting the carotid. Every practitioner should know how to raise and inject this artery, even though some other artery is the one generally used. [Illustration: FIG. 46—The arteries of the neck. (Gray)] _Linear Guide._—By a linear guide is meant that an imaginary line is drawn from a point to a point the same direction the artery runs so that by mentally imagining this line one can be safe to cut on the line and be sure that the desired artery will be reached.