DianaGabaldon – Page 19 – Outlander Anatomy

December 9, 2014September 3, 2015

Anatomy Lesson 8: “Jamie Takes a Beating and Claire’s Healing Touch”

Anatomy Lesson #8: Solar plexus, Respiratory Diaphragm, Kidneys and Cheekbone

Now, that’s a whole lot of anatomy, but dinna get into a swivet; this lesson is dictated by Rupert’s beating of Jamie. Well, now, Jamie is a warrior who has a knack for getting himself into a mess o’ messes. Claire is a warrior too, only her battle field is healing!

Getting started, let’s review the healing Claire has given thus far for young Jamie – showing that she is a real Healer-Dealer and how that rascal Rupert undoes some of her warrior work!

In Starz episode #1, Sassenach, Murtagh captures Claire on Saturday – likely the same day Jamie dislocates his shoulder. Several hours pass before Claire reduces Jamie’s shoulder (see Anatomy Lesson #2). “Tá Dia (I think this is what he says) – it doesna hurt anymore!” exclaims Jamie. Ha, the Highlanders hadna a clue that a feral Sassenach cat could perform such miracles!

Claire and her captors ride through Saturday night and into Sunday when Jamie is shot at Cocknammon Rock (See Anatomy Lesson #3). Later that night, after fainting from lack of blood, Claire securely binds his wound so he doesna have to stay and determine his own fate wit’ a loaded pistol (Starz episode #1, Sassenach).

On Monday they arrive at Castle Leoch (Starz episode #2, Castle Leoch). Claire insists on properly cleaning and dressing Jamie’s gunshot wound (See Anatomy Lesson #3), all the while conducting a thorough counseling session fer the sad-lad! She also binds his right arm to his chest (thorax in anatomy) to immobilize the freshly reduced shoulder joint. What a caregiver!

On Tuesday (Starz episode #2, Castle Leoch), Claire brings Jamie comfort in the form of lunch and fresh bandages but accidentally upsets his work at the stables. Jamie falls to his knees. Oooh, this clearly hurts his pride and mayhap messes a wee bit wit’ his injured shoulder? Oops, Claire better watch that hip padding – it gets in the way! After lunch, true confessions and a good deal of “facetime,” Claire begs Jamie not to get stabbed or flogged today.

By Friday, after having been a good lad fer far too long Jamie gallantly steps forth at the Hall to take punishment for “damn-her-eyes” LiarHair who clearly has been a verra bad lassie (Starz episode #2, Castle Leoch). Ye’ll ken this is about six days after his shoulder dislocation and only five days since his gunshot wound! This is important because at this point new blood vessels are growing (angiogenesis), cells are dividing (mitosis) and collagen is forming (fibrogenesis) to help heal pulled ligaments and strained muscles; everything in Jamie’s shoulder is tender and sore. But, braw showman that he is, he chooses fists no the strap!

Laird Colum allows it. Rupert will administer the fisticuffs delivering two consecutive blows to Jamie’s belly!

Now for some anatomy! Both blows strike Jamie in the pit of the stomach (Photo A). This type of blow affects three major regions of the body: the belly wall, the solar plexus and the diaphragm.

Photo A

As I will cover the belly wall in a future post, I won’t describe its full anatomy now. Suffice it to say that it is defined by the blue area seen in Photo B. In a warrior like Jamie, whose belly is very strong, two punches will not do much real damage. But consider the gut punch BJR gives Claire (Starz episode 6, The Garrison Commander) along with the belly kick by his weenie gopher. I suspect that Claire’s corset stays, several undergarments and that fabulous pleated tartan gown kept any real damage to a minimum; ye ken that each pleat includes three layers of wool? (Aye, Terry and her team create such splendid garments!)

Photo B

Now, just behind the stomach lies the solar plexus (Photo C – surface anatomy), so named because it resembles a sunburst; anatomists call it the celiac (coeliac) plexus.

Photo C

To understand the celiac plexus, let’s first visit the aorta the largest artery of the human body (Photo D – posterior abdominal wall – from the front with organs removed). It begins in the chest, pierces the diaphragm and enters the abdominal cavity where it lies in front of the spine.

Photo D

The celiac plexus (Photo E – black arrows) wraps the front and sides of the abdominal aorta. The white blobs in Photo E are ganglia, swellings that house nerve cell bodies. The white strings are nerves; arising from the cell bodies they connect with other ganglia and supply organs (viscera). The nerves cause viscera to contract or secrete and also carry pain sensation back to the central nervous system. A blow to the belly can bruise the stomach, shock the celiac plexus, cause pain and potentially interfere with visceral function.

Photo E

Finally, the last body part vulnerable to a belly blow is the thoracic diaphragm, a dome-shaped sheet of muscle and tendon between the chest and the abdominal cavities that sits surprisingly high under the rib cage (Photo F – from the front showing cut edge of diaphragm). It is attached to the inner surfaces of breast bone, ribs and vertebrae and is a powerful muscle of respiration: as we breathe in (inspire) it descends, as we breathe out (expire) it rises. Blows to the belly wall cause temporary paralysis of the thoracic diaphragm making breathing difficult – the sensation of “getting the wind knocked out of you” and perhaps the most uncomfortable part of a gut punch! The spasm is accompanied by pain, anxiety and difficulty sitting or standing. But, as with Jamie, the spasm passes, breathing resumes and equanimity is restored.

Photo F

Moving on…Rupert circles around to Jamie’s back and delivers a third blow causing him to stagger! As ye well ken, this is a kidney punch and it is verra painful!

The kidneys are paired bean-shaped organs that produce urine, extract wastes, balance body fluids and are vital for normal life! Each day they filter about 189 liters (200 qt) of blood but produce only about 1.89 liters (2 qt) of urine because normally most all the fluid is resorbed. The urine flows into paired ureters then to the urinary bladder and is subsequently voided through the unpaired urethra (Photo G).

Photo G

A blow to the kidney is painful but not always serious (unless, of course, Claire’s stabbing ye in the back wit’ her sgian dubh!). Why? Weel, because the 11^th & 12^th ribs protect much of the left kidney and 12^th rib protects part of the right (Photo H – from the back; kidney outlines shown as dashed lines). Also, strong back muscles absorb energy from a kidney punch. Kidney injury from blunt trauma ranges from bruising to serious tearing of tissues. Just so ye ken, blood in the urine is a good indicator of kidney trauma and the kidney punch is one of the meanest places to whack an opponent – although our fiery hero doesn’t seem that worse for wear.

Photo H

By now Rupert is sweating. So he checks wit’ his heid, “Dougal the Devil Man” ta see if it’s time to stop. Now, we all ken that Dougal is Colum’s war chief. So, take a peek at his menacing stance – splayed legs all covered wit’ his shiny high top boots. But, Dougal has no problem wi’ his nephew getting hurt and hurt badly. After all, the lad is still standing at this point and standin’ in the way of his best-laid plans. So Uncle Dougal directs Rupert to land a 4^th blow – this time to Jamie’s face and blood splatters the slates. As there is another punch coming to Jamie’s face, I’m saving facial anatomy until blow #6! Read on!

Hey, now, I thought the beating was supposed to stop once blood was drawn. Geillis says so and we all know she never lies. Next, Rupert hauls back and lands a mighty one ta Jamie’s right shoulder!

So, what was Claire thinking through all this physical plundering? Herself writes in Outlander:

“I was in agony of apprehension, lest one of the blows re-damage the wounded shoulder…”

Too late Claire…Och, Rupert, that was brutal, man!

Time fer more anatomy, heh. The shoulder blow is bad news because there’s nay been enough time for the wounds to have healed properly. The next photo shows the proper alignment of a normal glenohumeral joint (Photo I: x-ray right shoulder). Part of the humeral head (red arrow) sits in the glenoid cavity of the scapula (blue arrow).

Photo I

Nearly a week earlier Jamie suffered an anterior dislocation of the glenohumeral joint (Photo J: x-ray right shoulder). Here, the humeral head (red arrow) is typically displaced forward (anterior) and down (inferior) from the glenoid cavity (blue arrow) as shown in the following x-ray. Claire restored the normal anatomy of the joint, but as we learned earlier, the whole area remains inflamed and tender. Ouch! It hurts just ta look at it.

Photo J

Finally, Rupert delivers the last punch to Jamie’s face and knocks him to the ground!

Now, ye best understand the damage these facial blows can cause! In anatomy, the cheek bone is the zygomatic arch (Photo K). With color-coded skull bones, ye can clearly see that the zygomatic arch is made of two bones: the pink part belongs to the temporal bone and the orange part to the zygomatic bone. The two bones meet at a jagged suture (non-moveable joint). Although strong, the suture is at risk for fracture.

Photo K

Also, the zygomatic bone forms the outer rim of the bony orbit where the eye is housed (Photo L). Both zygomatic arch and bony orbit are subcutaneous structures (see Anatomy Lesson #5 – The Skin) and vulnerable to injury. The fact that Rupert’s blow didn’t fracture either of these bony areas is probably due to the fact that Jamie’s head is harder than an iron pot – or so says his sister Jenny!

Photo L

After the beating, Murtagh helps our hero out of the hall but not afore Jamie casts a look at Claire: “Sassenach., I need you!” Well, that does it. Claire has ta’ git outta that Hall – NOW! Make way, Geillis! Ah, have patience Claire, a few more weeks and ye’re going ta get all the healing touches of Jamie ye want. Lucky Lady!

Soon enough, Claire tenderly soothes Jamie’s bruises: he’ll be sore for a couple of days, but he’s no really damaged. She is dying ta know why he took Miss LongHare’s punishment! In Outlander book Jamie answers Claire:

“Why not me?”…Why not? I wanted to say. Because you didn’t know her, she was nothing to you. Because you were already hurt. Because it takes something rather special in the way of guts to stand up in front of a crowd and let someone hit you in the face, no matter what your motive.”

Friends, if you have yet to read the marvelous Outlander books, I urge ye to do so as well as follow the Starz episodes! There are lots more to these vignettes than can fit into a 60 minute episode!

Then Claire delivers the sad news that tomorrow (Saturday) she is headed back to Inverness with Pitre the tinker! Jamie groans as he stands to say farewell. He is devastated. Are ye sobbin’ yet? He is!

Ah…breathe a sigh of relief – fate has a surprise in store fer Mistress Beauchamp. Yep, Colum and his lil’ Big Bad Bro willna let her go wit’ the tinker. Claire has to stay and take her own Beaton – er, the surgery I mean – that little “chamber of horrors” needs her healing touch too!

Now, looking fer remnants of Jamie’s beating – were the continuity detailers attending to details? Yep, they were. Many films show heroes beaten within an inch of their lives but they emerge moments later wit’ nary a scratch – keeps me up at night!

Here’s a great example. Did ye see Jamie hobble along wit his right arm drooping as the Teenage Trollop hauls him into an alcove ta have her way wit’ him (Starz episode 3, The Way Out)? Yep, he’s still hurting after that thrashing!

At the pillory (Starz episode 3, The Way Out), we glimpse a dark shadow over his zygomatic arch (red arrow) and mayhap a bit o’ black eye as he helps Claire from a feigned swoon – she who canna stand the sight of blood. Hah. Looks like a big old nasty bruise ta me! Verra nice.

Finally, at the Black Kirk, Claire gives Jamie a botany 101 class explaining the difference between wood garlic and its deadly look-a-like, lily of the valley. This time we see up close the mottled bruising o’er Jamie’s zygomatic arch. Ahhh…he does have a lovely arch does he not?

I’ll leave ye now with three wonderful images from Starz episode 3, The Way Out. At Gwyllyn the Bard’s performance, Claire is deep into Colum’s Rhenish. Ever watchful Jamie escorts her safely to her Beaton dungeon under the guise of needing help wit’ his bandage. Jamie, ye are the man! Claire decides to check his gunshot wound anyway and starts ta take off his clothes -weel, she just unties his stock and unbuttons his shirt but…Gah!

She pulls back the bandage: “Scabbed over nicely; no drainage.” She isna going ta let Jamie leave her surgery without feeling his fair, fresh skin. After all she is the healer and she is in charge!

And, what is young Jamie’s thinking wit’ Claire half undressing him and putting her bonny fingers on him? Weel, look at his face. Ha’ mercy, lass! Ye are making it verra hard for the puir man. Snort! Jamie, he is silently taking’ the MacKenzie oath – only backwards. Jamie, man, ye BURN not shine!

OK, that does it fer this anatomy lesson. Thanks for joining me as we explored how Jamie’s wounds ne’er fail to bring on Claire’s healing touch! Hope ye all are hunkering down as the winter solstice approaches (in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway).

And fer those who are new to my blog, a note of explanation: I follow the convention of using the character’s names rather than the Starz actor’s names. This gives the cast at least one degree of separation and a wee bit o’ respect as I dissect their bodies with words! I hope ye all understand!

You can now follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

The deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

Images courtesy of: Starz, www.wikihow.com, www.wikipedia.org, Kidney Health Australia, radiopaedia.org, Netter’s Atlas of Human Anatomy 4^th ed., Hollingshead’s Textbook of Anatomy, 5^th ed.

November 12, 2014February 12, 2021

Anatomy Lesson #6: “Claire’s Hair – Jamie’s Mane” or “Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ!”

Hallo again, friends of Outlander Anatomy! Today’s Anatomy Lesson #6: The Skin – Part 2, Hair, will continue with skin but, today, will focus on hair, hair follicles, arrector pili muscles and sebaceous glands, all of which you learned from Skin Part 1 are made by skin and are therefore appendages of this organ.

Now, before we get on with today’s lesson, I must confess that I did a quiet switcheroo on you in the last anatomy lesson. My first four lessons were confined to that part of human anatomy known as gross anatomy, the field revealed by human dissection.

Nay…not that kind of gross, Rupert! It is termed “gross” not because it is yucky, but because it deals with structures visible to the naked eye. In Anatomy Lesson #5, I switched (without telling) to another field of human anatomy, that of microscopic anatomy.

Microscopes are used to magnify structures too wee for us to see with eyes unaided by magnifying lenses. Many of today’s images are drawings made from images observed with a compound microscope such as this one (photo A):

photo A

Once again there are 3-D images taken with powerful SEM/scanning electron microscope (Photo B). I have used both types of microscopes many times in teaching and various research projects!

photo B

Now, getting in the mood for today’s Anatomy Lesson: Skin 2 – the Hair! As with skin, Herself often writes about hair in the Outlander books, offering her audience a more intimate glimpse into characters and situations through vivid use of this physical trait. So, once again, I begin our lesson with images from the Starz Outlander series and with words from the Outlander books.

Let’s begin with our heroine. Early in Starz episode 1, Sassenach, Claire emerges from the roadster standing in the picturesque village of Inverness. We can clearly appreciate her dark brown hair – very full and very curly.

Later, during a lighting storm, Herself writes

The wind was rising and the very air of the bedroom was prickly with electricity. I drew the brush through my hair, making the curls snap with static and spring into knots and furious tangles!

The humid air makes Claire’s hair wildly curly and disobedient (Starz, episode 101, Sassenach) to which she exclaims: Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ!!!

All the while, someone is awatching her futile struggles through the window of her room.

Nay, it isn’t a peeping tom, it is a keeking Jamie! Ha!

This next image of Claire always makes me laugh! In Starz episode 102, Castle Leoch, Mrs. Fitz unceremoniously rouses Claire from her sleep, seats her in a chair and hands her a cup ‘o brakfast fer her empty belly. Mrs. Fitz then whisks it away afore Claire even finishes! Look at Claire’s hair! It is absolutely fabulous! She certainly looks like the “wee milkweed” Jamie affectionately calls her later in the Outlander book.

“Fretful porpentine, was it?” he asked. He tilted his head, examining me inquisitively. “Mmm,” he said, running a hand over his head to smooth down his own hair. “Fretful, at least. You’re a fuzzy wee thing when ye wake, to be sure.” He rolled over toward me, reaching out a hand. “Come here, my wee milkweed.”

With these great images to set the mood, it is time for our anatomy lesson on hair and with it a lot of juicy tidbits to share!

First, the length of body hair varies a lot – from less than 1 mm (.04 in) on the forehead to well over 1 m (3.3 ft) with long scalp hair (Photo C)! But, the wee hairs of the eyelids (not the eyelashes) are so short they barely reach the skin surface! And, you should know that most hair grows very rapidly, about 0.3 mm/day or 1 cm/per month.

photo C

You should also know that hair does not grow straight out of the skin; it emerges at a slant (Photo D).

Try this: Check the angle of growth of your own hair: place your forearm on a flat surface with the palm down. Examine your forearm hairs and see that they are angled toward the little finger side of the forearm. That’s the slant I’m a talking about.

photo D

Hair is also denser in some skin areas than in others: the face has about 600 hairs/cm² (.16 in²) compared to about 60 hairs/cm² on the rest of the body.

Hair diameter also varies greatly but even the coarsest hair is only about .5 mm (.02 in) in diameter (Photo E). Even so, a scalp hair is strong enough to support the weight of 100 gm (3.5 oz)!

photo E

Another interesting tidbit: Human hair grows autonomously; each hair cycles at its own pace through periods of growth and periods of quiescence. If all our hair were on the same cycle, we would molt!

And sometimes our hair does unspeakable things and we just have to pull it outta the way like Angus here who does prefer a wee bit o’ purple ribbon fer his scalp hairs!

Now back to microscopic anatomy! Using the same image from Skin – Part 1, I’ll be reminding ye that skin is divided into a thin outer epidermis that overlies a thicker dermis. And, although not part of skin the hypodermis lies deeper still. The dermis and hypodermis also anchor structures that we’ll cover in this anatomy lesson: hair, hair follicles, arrector pili muscles, and sebaceous glands (Photo F).

photo F

Hairs emerge from hair follicles which are down growths of the epidermis (Photo G). The internal anatomy of each follicle is verra complex so I’m simplifying it: the hair and its follicle are divided into a hair root and a hair shaft. At the root is a bulb where cells divide and push older cells toward the surface to form the hair shaft!

photo G

Along the way, hair cells harden and get plastered together so by the time the hair clears the skin surface, the cells are dead, flat and stiff with their free edges pointing toward the hair tip. They also overlap each other like shingles on a roof (Photo H). This is a SEM image of a single hair!

Photo H

Ye should also ken that hair follicles are verra sensitive to the influence of hormones! These chemicals produce secondary sex characteristics such as hair distribution. In fact, the distribution of hair between the two sexes play an important role in socio-sexual communications!

In women, estrogens (oestrogens) cause most body hair to develop as short, thin vellus hairs that are anchored in the dermis. Both genders exhibit the coarse terminal hairs of scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows, axilla and pubis that are embedded deep in the hypodermis.

In men, androgens (testosterone being the most important) also convert facial and chest hairs into terminal hairs. Now then, isna this the right place to offer praises to Dougal MacKenzie who won Saturday’s Starz contest with his comely beard? Congrats! It looks mighty fine on ye, man! Tulach Ard!

And, no anatomy lecture is ever complete without at least one image of a half-dressed Jamie! So here is his chest hair just in case ye be forgettin’! No verra damn likely! Gawd!

Something else: When viewed by SEM, straight hair has a round shaft as seen in this photo of scalp hair (Photo I –computer generated color); the surrounding dead skin cells look like scatter leaves on a forest floor.

Photo I

Murtagh’s scalp offers a perfect example of straight hair – here he is explaining to Claire why Jamie is nowhere to be seen (Starz episode 5, Rent)! Plus, he has mighty fine eyes and braw eyebrows just in case ye been so focused on Jamie that ye havena been noticing!

Scalp hair that is curly like Claire’s…

…has a shaft that is flattened in cross-section as shown in this SEM image (Photo J). The flatter the shaft, the curlier the hair!

Photo J

Now, onto a couple of other structures associated with the hair follicle. First, stretched between the follicle and the dermis is a thin band of tissue, the arrector pili muscle. Second, between the hair follicle and the arrector pili muscle lays one or more sebaceous glands with ducts opening into the hair follicle (Photo K). Sebaceous glands produce sebum, a complex mixture of fats, waxes and other materials.

photo K

The arrector pili muscles are made of smooth muscle cells that are not under conscious control. They contract in response to cold or the fright, flight, fight reflex! Contractions of this muscle elevate the hair, forming goose bumps or goose flesh and help squeeze sebum from the sebaceous glands into the hair follicle and onto the hair shaft (Photo L).

Photo L

Contraction of the arrector pili muscles in animals traps air between the erect hairs to retain body heat or to help the creature appear more fierce (Photo M)! This adaptation isn’t of much use to us short haired humans but the release of sebum does help lubricate and protect the hair itself.

Photo M

Finally, on to hair color! Like the epidermis, hair color requires the presence of melanin; melanocytes in the hair bulb synthesize melanin and package it into granules that move up the hair shaft as it forms. Now, it turns out that there are a couple of different types of melanin!

Like Claire, most hair color is due to the presence of varying amounts of brown or black eumelanin. But, now, ye are in fer a BIG surprise! I bet ye dinna ken this! Flaming red hair in one such as our Great Scott, Jamie, contains a chemically different type of melanin known as pheomelanin and this molecule is red (or red-brown)! Thus, Jamie’s gorgeous mane of red hair is due to the presence of pheomelanin as seen from the back in this image (Starz episode 7, The Wedding)!

And just so ye won’t ferget it, here is Jamie’s hair from the front! We can literally see the words Herself wrote in Outlander about his hair:

…a mass of auburn, copper, cinnamon and gold all gleaming together in the morning sun…

And one last point fer yer eddycation: Check out both upper corners of Jamie’s forehead. See how the hair line is squared off? This is known as the temporal notch; it is a secondary sexual characteristic in men brought about by the influence of testosterone. Women typically have an oval hairline in the corresponding areas of the forehead!

And now, folks, our journey through the skin and its appendages has come to an end! I do hope you have enjoyed learning about the skin ye are in and that of the Outlander cast while we are at it! At some point in the future, I will post Skin 3 – The Breast.

In the meantime, I’ll be leaving ye with these lovely words from Herself in the Outlander book and an image from Starz episode 7 (The Wedding):

You’ve the loveliest hair,” said Jamie, watching me. ….”But it’s so .…curly,” I said, blushing a little….“Aye, of course.” ….He sat up and tugged gently on one curl, stretching it down so that, uncurled, it reached nearly to my breast…

And:

“Mo duinne?”…“It means ’my brown one.’ ”He raised a lock of hair to his lips and smiled, with a look in his eyes that started all the drops of my own blood chasing each other through my veins. Rather a dull color, brown, I’ve always thought,”….”No, I’d not say that, Sassenach. Not dull at all.” He lifted the mass of my hair with both hands and fanned it out. “It’s like the water in a bern, where it ruffles over the stones. Dark in the wavy spots, with bits of silver (auburn on Starz) on the surface where the sun catches it.”

Gah, this man has a way with words! Does he ever say anything wrong? Just look at the look on Claire’s face! She’s both enchanting and enchanted!

Psst…next time, I will be writing about someone’s thighs and knees (guess whose?)! Stay tuned!

The deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

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Photo credit: Starz, Cat photo from goosecam Edmonton Journal, Goosebumps from genius.com, Basic Histology by Junqueira and Carneiro, 11^th ed., University of Leeds, Rochester education Foundation, Wikipedia, WebMD, Loyola University Dermatology website, Histology Guide, University of Leeds, Wikimedia.org. CSIR – Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa. OA archival photos, Aersol Research – Washington University St. Louis

November 7, 2014July 31, 2015

Anatomy Lesson 5: “Claire’s Skin” – “Ivory, Opal and White Velvet”

Greetings, followers of Outlander Anatomy! Today’s Anatomy Lesson #5: The Skin – Part 1 is extraordinarily important (as are all anatomy lessons) and ye wouldn’t want to get skinned for skipping what is vital to yer own well-being as we learn about our skin!

WARNING! This post includes spoiler alerts and the image of a dissected human body. If you are a bit squeamish about such images, you may want to skip it. Dougal will give ye a second warning just prior!

OK, now, about skin….Herself writes about skin throughout all of the Outlander books where it is used to define characters, enhance scenes, and provide a substrate for Claire’s practice of medicine. As ye ken, the Starz Outlander series and the books are told in the voice of Claire, our braw and lovely heroine! Thus, we must rely on images or observations made by others to inform us as about Claire’s skin which I will use to segue into today’s anatomy lesson!

Let us begin…

In Starz episode 1, Sassenach, we see Claire and Frank driving through the Scottish countryside. On a second honeymoon, they are trying to reconnect after serving apart in WW II. We see that Claire has very pale, clear skin framed by a mass of curly, brown hair.

Herself informs us through polished, sophisticated and urbane Frank that Claire’s ”…skin glows like ivory.” Then Frank makes love to Claire in the grass at the base of Craigh na Dun where he tells her that her skin is like white velvet. Because I don’t have images to match these descriptions, I substitute one from a later episode (Starz episode 6, The Garrison Commander), so along with Frank, we may witness Claire and her beautiful skin!

Next, in a very telling scene from Starz episode 3, The Way Out, Mrs. Fitz helps bathe and dry Claire despite to her protestations; Claire avers that she is able to tend to her own ablutions! But a persistent Mrs. Fitz kindly observes:

Such beautiful skin ya’ have! I’ve never seen a woman past 8 or 9 with skin so unmarked by injury or illness. Yer next husband will be a lucky man!

Aye, that he will…chuckle!

To me, Claire’s beautiful skin is most telling (Starz episode 8, Both sides Now) during the assault by the redcoat deserter. She wears virtually no makeup, nor is any required in my opinion! Her skin is very pale, very clear and her nose and cheeks are endowed with a faint sprinkle of freckles. Claire also looks very vulnerable, very young and absolutely LOVELY despite the unspeakable situation she finds herself in! I can say this without prejudice because I am an anatomist! Ye ken?

But, the ultimate proof comes from Jamie himself: in Outlander, he tells Claire that she has skin like an “opal” as he slowly traces a finger along her collar bone making her skin glow beneath his touch! And, again from our hero:

“Mo duinne,” he said softly. “But now I should say mo airgeadach. My silver one. Your hair is silver-gilt and your skin is white velvet. Calman geal. White dove”.

Again, no images to match the words, so let’s use this lovely substitute!

Hey! Mukker! Are ye still wit’ me?! One last image before we git on to our science lesson! In Starz episode 3, The Way Out, Claire is summoned by the MacKenzie. Colum removes his kilt asking her to massage his aching legs. He also asks Mistress Beauchamp if she sews as well as physicks to which Claire responds: “only flesh, a rather poor garment, I’m afraid.” My cue! Weel, I am athinkin’ that Claire’s answer to Colum was deliberately a wee bit coy and evasive because she would know that skin is NO a puir garment at all!

So, now we segue into Anatomy Lesson #5, The Skin…folks, I am here to tell ye that the skin is absolutely a remarkable garment! Ye will no be amiss to think of it as your own personal space suit that enables you to live a terrestrial rather than an aquatic life! It is also the major barrier between a rather inhospitable world and yer insides! Yes, it gets diseased and injured because we are mortal, after all. But, it serves us verra well so please read on!

If ye are squeamish, ye may wish to skip the next image or heed Dougal’s advice…

A few years back, German anatomist, Professor Gunther von Hagens brought his world-renown Body Worlds exhibit to my neck of the woods. I was privileged to deliver the key note lecture before the event and was Professor of Anatomy on opening night where I gave mini-lectures and answered questions posed by attendees. Of the many extraordinary figures at that exhibit was one of a man holding his own skin and gazing at it in awe (Photo A). I hope after reading this post, you too will view your own skin with the awe it so richly deserves!

Photo A

First off, skin is an organ. Yes, it is! It is also the heaviest organ of the human body! Really, ye say? Yup, it accounts for at least 8% of our body weight (some studies claim as much as 16%) and covers a surface area of about 20 ft² or 1.9 m²! Want to determine the weight of your own skin? It’s simple! Just multiply your weight in pounds or kilos by .08 – the answer is the approximately the weight of your own skin!

Skin also produces all of our body hair, fingernails, toenails, sweat glands, sebaceous glands, the female breasts and the male nipples and areolas. All of these appendages are skin derivatives and therefore part of the organ itself. Earlier, I mentioned Claire’s hair and now ye ken why because hair is part of the skin. But, as Claire’s hair makes for an interesting subject in its own right, I will address hair in my next post: The Skin – Part 2! And won’t it be fun to see the Outlander Starz results in it’s “hair as a character” poll this Saturday!

Ok, this next one is a gratuitous shot…sorry I just canna help it! Weel, not entirely gratuitous – it does show hair and skin and one other thing I havna yet told ye: the enamel of the teeth is derived from modified skin of the mouth. Geez, even his teeth are gorgeous! Get a grip prof! Focus!

Ahem…now, back to the lecture! Skin thickness varies throughout the body; some skin is thick for protection such as on the soles of our feet or thin as on our eyelids where thickness is not required. Skin is also more heavily pigmented in some areas (nipple and areola) than in others (belly). Most of the skin bears either fine or coarse hairs but some areas are completely devoid of hair: the so-called glaborous surfaces of the body such as the palms and soles where hair, if present, would interfere with grip.

Skin is composed of two important layers: a thin outer epidermis that sits atop a thicker inner dermis (See photo C). Deep to the dermis is the hypodermis; although not part of the skin, it is important because it helps anchor the skin to underlying structures such as muscle or bone (Photo B). In addition, some skin structures are actually anchored in the hypodermis.

Photo B

The epidermis is composed of skin cells and some other cell types. It also completely replaces itself about every four weeks, with new cells forming at the base and advancing toward the surface where they die and slough. So, cells at the skin surface are flat and dead – these cells exfoliate naturally (did ye know that a large portion of house dust is shed skin cells?) or ye pay for exfoliation by costly products or at expensive salons (Photo C – this 3-D image was taken with a powerful scanning electron microscope or SEM)! The supporting dermis houses two types of sweat glands, sebaceous glands, blood vessels, hair follicles, and special microscopic endings for sensation.

Photo C

So what about sweat glands? The skin actually includes two different types: apocrine sweat glands are present only in the arm pits (axilla in anatomy, remember?) and our private regions (perineum in anatomy). The thicker sweat from these glands is initially odorless but when acted on by skin bacteria, it develops a pungent, acrid smell. This is the unwashed male that Claire muses on while sharing Jamie’s mount (Outlander book) – although females most certainly battle the same issue! A second type, the eccrine sweat gland, is ubiquitous throughout the remaining skin; sweat from this gland is watery and usually exudes an ammonia smell. Photo D shows the multiple openings (pores) of eccrine sweat glands on the finger pad.

Photo D

The process of sweating from eccrine sweat glands is captured in Photo E. Here, following exercise, blue sweat droplets bead on skin from the back of the hand. This 3-D photo was again taken the powerful SEM. The colors, however, are not real – they were computer generated.

Photo E

As fer the sebaceous glands, I’ll be leaving those until my next post: The Skin – Part 2! Next, a question commonly asked by students: what causes the wide variation in human skin tones (see Photo F)?

Photo F

Weel, it turns out that there are a number of reasons for our individual skin color. One cause is the number of blood vessels in the dermis and the color of blood surging through them (bright red arterial blood versus duskier venous blood). Just fer fun, let’s compare and contrast the color of Claire skin wit’ that of Jamie’s in this image from Starz episode 1, Sassenach. We clearly see Claire’s naturally cool and pale complexion but partly because she is royally pissed, holding herself aloof from all the male funnin’ goin’ on around her. But, Jamie’s skin is strikingly different! Although Jamie is splattered in blood and he has naturally ruddy skin, it is enhanced in this scene having exerted himself in battle and during Claire’s recapture so ye can bet at this point there’s a whole lot of bright red arterial blood circulating through the vessels of his dermis!

Another contribution to overall skin color depends on how much carotene we consumed in our diets: carotene is an orange pigment prevalent in fruits and veggies such as cantaloupe, sweet potato and carrot (Photo G). Carotene absorbed from our food gets deposited in the epidermis where it adds to skin color and also helps protect epidermal cells from damage by UV light.

Photo G

But, the most significant contribution to skin color comes from special cells of the epidermis, the melanocytes (Photo H). These scattered squid-like cells produce and package the pigment, melanin, into granules that are released into surrounding skin cells. Interestingly, the number of melanocytes in a given region of the skin is the same regardless of skin tone or gender. So, differences in skin color are due mainly to differences in the number and size of the melanin packets produced and this in turn is determined by genetics! In darker skins, the melanin granules are larger, more numerous, persist longer and are distributed throughout the epidermis. Pale skin has fewer, smaller melanin granules that are confined to cells at the base of the epidermis and degrade more quickly.

Photo H

Ye can deliberately increase the production of melanin granules and darken existing melanin in yer own skin by exposure to UV light either from the sun or from tanning beds. I ken the beds are a very popular trend, but I want to WARN ye: For some very sound medical reasons, ye should NOT expose yer skin to UV light from tanning beds and ye should also be judicious about tanning from the sun’s rays too, especially if ye are fair of skin like Claire! I urge ye to get informed about it!

Now, ye are all are probably aware of albinism (Photo I), a condition affecting animals (humans, spiders, snakes, apes, etc.) where the sufferer lacks an enzyme needed to make melanin (albinism occurs in plants too but is due to an absence of chlorophyll). Albinos (Latin: albus for white) do NOT make any melanin in the skin, hair or the irises of the eyes! This is a difficult condition because their eyes are highly sensitive to light (photophobia) and they have difficulty tracking the eyes normally. The skin is also highly susceptible to skin cancers! It is a condition which, at present, has no cure but there are steps that can be taken to protect the skin and aide the eyes.

Photo I

Finally our skin has a battery of sensory endings specialized to detect changes in our environment and transmit these to our nervous system. The fingertips alone have about 2500 of these receptors per cm² (about 0.2 in²) of skin! I’ll not show pictures of these endings because they are a wee bit too technical. In summary, then, here is a short list of what skin does for Claire and for us all!

It is an anatomical barrier against pathogens and damage.
It provides sensation in the form of pain, touch, pressure, heat, cold and vibration.
It regulates our body temperature by dilating or constricting blood vessels in the dermis and cooling the skin by the evaporation of sweat.
It helps control fluid loss.
Helps synthesize vitamin D via UV radiation.
It aids in excretion of waste products.
It aids in communication: others assess our mood, physical state or attractiveness by the state of our skin.

Impressed yet? I know I am and I’ve been teaching this subject for a verra long time!

Speaking of mood, let’s close wit’ this touching image from Starz episode 7 The Wedding, where Jamie pays homage to the skin of his bride of astonishing beauty with a soft murmur and a tentative touch!

Aye, Jamie, ye are ready! And, so is Claire – she sure took long enough! Snort!

I do hope ye have a better understanding and appreciation of the skin ye are in and have an increased desire to take verra good care of it!

A wee note of explanation: I will also continue my convention of typically using the character’s names rather than the names of the actors. This gives the cast at least one degree of separation and a wee bit o’ respect as I dissect their bodies on a blog! I hope ye all understand.

The deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

Images are from Starz Outlander series. Microscopic images and drawings from Netter’s Atlas of Human Anatomy, 4^th ed., Bailey’s Textbook of histology, 10^th ed. or Bloom & Fawcett’s Concise Histology, 2^nd ed, and the National Geographic, Skinned man from Body Worlds exhibit (sans the fig leaf), CGI image of epidermis and dermis from Loyola University Dermatology website, Baby photo from an older United Colors of Benneton ad, Photo of carrots from Gov. of West Australia and fig leaf from ClipArt, Archival photo of albino man taken by an unknown photographer – beginning of the 20^th century.