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(Warning-- potentially gross posting; Proceed at own risk)
In radiology, we're looking at the elbow now. One of the reasons you'd take an x-ray of the elbow is called a Monteggia's Fracture: A fracture of the ulna (the arm bone on the pinky side of your forearm) in which the object that thwacks you does so hard enough to also displace the radius (the forearm bone on the thumb side of your arm).
This is also called a "nightstick fracture", because that is how people get them--- they get hit hard on the ulna with a nightstick. (Ow! You know, I think I need a meatier word than "Ow!" to describe how that must feel. "Ow" is just not enough for that.)
Well now. The radiology course makes me want to return to, of all places, Stuttgart. Last time I was there, the city museum had a lovely collection of... hmmm.... crown jewels for the city/barony/principality of Stuttgart, plus an exhibit of bones dug up from various medieval battlefields.
In the exhibit, they'd show a bone (a skull, say) with a big hole or break in it, and they'd make educated guesses (based on the artifacts found with the skeleton, the date and location of the skeleton, and the weapons commonly used at the time) about how the person died.
Skulls with holes (caused by the pointy end of a war hammer). Crushed ribcages (broadsword). Fractured femurs broken completely in half (Wounded horse fell on rider). Broken necks (sword again).
Take the skull example: One moment of rage, or fear, or determination, or desperation in 1372, and one well-aimed blow.... and the result sits in a museum in 1995, a skull like a mute echo of that moment.
In radiology, we're looking at the elbow now. One of the reasons you'd take an x-ray of the elbow is called a Monteggia's Fracture: A fracture of the ulna (the arm bone on the pinky side of your forearm) in which the object that thwacks you does so hard enough to also displace the radius (the forearm bone on the thumb side of your arm).
This is also called a "nightstick fracture", because that is how people get them--- they get hit hard on the ulna with a nightstick. (Ow! You know, I think I need a meatier word than "Ow!" to describe how that must feel. "Ow" is just not enough for that.)
Well now. The radiology course makes me want to return to, of all places, Stuttgart. Last time I was there, the city museum had a lovely collection of... hmmm.... crown jewels for the city/barony/principality of Stuttgart, plus an exhibit of bones dug up from various medieval battlefields.
In the exhibit, they'd show a bone (a skull, say) with a big hole or break in it, and they'd make educated guesses (based on the artifacts found with the skeleton, the date and location of the skeleton, and the weapons commonly used at the time) about how the person died.
Skulls with holes (caused by the pointy end of a war hammer). Crushed ribcages (broadsword). Fractured femurs broken completely in half (Wounded horse fell on rider). Broken necks (sword again).
Take the skull example: One moment of rage, or fear, or determination, or desperation in 1372, and one well-aimed blow.... and the result sits in a museum in 1995, a skull like a mute echo of that moment.
