Tag: voyager

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FF: Camptodactyly or Clinodactyly?

Anatomy Def: Camptodactyly is a condition wherein one or more fingers are permanently bent; the little finger is always affected.

Outlander Def: Steeped in post-coital bliss (Voyager), Claire reflects on her crooked pinky finger, informing Jamie, it is a genetic gift from her mum that she passed onto Bree (see below).

Learn about the pinky finger (5th digit) in Anatomy Lesson #23, Harming Hands – Helping Hands – Healing Hands. Warning! This is a very long lesson because, well, because the hands are anatomically very complicated!

I wager book readers forgot about Claire’s crooked pinky finger – I did! 😜 A follower on Twitter reminded me just days ago! So, here goes:

Humans typically have five digits on each hand.  But, naming these appendages presents a dilemma: 🤔

    • US anatomists name a thumb and four fingers (index is #1 – pinky is #4).
    • Some European anatomists consider the thumb to be a finger (thumb is #1 – pinky is #5).

Ergo, how many fingers does a hand usually have? Clearly, the answer depends on who does the counting!

Stating the obvious, it is safest, especially in a medical setting, not use the term, “finger.” Instead, name the appendages “digits” and sequentially number them as digit #1 (thumb) through digit #5 (pinky).

Hand surgeons who helped teach my gross anatomy course didn’t use any numbers when preparing a patient for surgery to avoid mixups and mistaken surgeries! 😱 Rather, they used thumb, index, middle, ring, and little.

Now, for some quick anatomy:  The little finger (plus index, middle, and ring fingers) has three bones (phalanges). Each adjacent pair of phalanges meet at an interphalangeal (IP) joint. The IP joint nearest the wrist is the proximal interphalangeal joint (PIP); the one furtherest from the wrist is the distal interphalangeal joint (DIP).

The thumb is different because it has only two phalanges and one IP joint. Hence, US anatomists don’t consider the thumb to be a finger because of these anatomic differences.

Try This: Find the PIP and DIP joints on your index, middle, ring and little fingers. Find the IP joint on your thumb. Got it? Yay! 👍🏻

As mentioned above, camptodactyly always involves the 5th digit (pinky finger) which is permanently flexed at the  PIP joint (see image, below)!

Claire’s mother had the crooked little finger, Claire has it, and her daughter has it, too. This is not surprising as the gene for camptodactyly may be passed to the next generation by either parent.  If a person carries the gene, it may be expressed in one hand, both hands or neither.

And, if the permanent flexion is 30º or less, the hand usually functions normally.

Just to throw a monkey wrench into the issue….. Claire may have had a different condition known as clinodactyly (Greek: to bend + finger), another inheritable trait involving a crooked 5th digit.

However, clinodactyly is characterized by the pinky finger bending toward the adjacent ring finger. Yet another difference between the two conditions is that clinodactyly may occur at the DIP joint or the PIP joint, or both!

Because Claire became a skilled surgeon, we can safely assume that no matter which condition she had, the crooked right little finger did not create a hinderance to her handiwork!

Clinodactyly of the hand.
Clinodactyly is a congenital trait that is present at birth. It can occur on its own or as part of a genetic syndrome.

See: Claire’s right little finger in Outlander episode 306, A. Malcolm. The episode does not include Claire’s musing about her crooked pinky finger for good reason: It would be difficult to display such a condition throughout all seasons of Outlander!

Read: But Claire does acknowledge her finger to Jamie in Voyager book.

“Her nails are like yours; square, not oval like mine. But she has the crooked little finger on her right hand that I have,” I said, lifting it. “My mother had it, too; Uncle Lambert told me.” My own mother had died when I was five. I had no clear memory of her, but thought of her whenever I saw my own hand unexpectedly, caught in a moment of grace like this one. I laid the hand with the crooked finger on his, then lifted it to his face. 

Which condition did Claire have – camptodactyly or clinodactyly? Only Herself knows for sure! 😉

The deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

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Photo and Video Credits: Sony/Starz; www.congenitalhand.wustl.edu; www.healthline.com

 

 

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Fun Fact: Breast

Common Use Def: The breast is one of two soft, protruding organs on the upper front of a woman’s torso that secrete milk after birth.

Anatomy Def:  But, the scientific definition rightly includes male and female breasts as both are derived from the same embryonic tissue and diseases occur in the breasts of both sexes.

Outlander Def: Taming-of-the-sea organs? Or, so goes the argument posited by Captain Raines of the Artemis!

Learn about the breast in Anatomy Lesson #51 The Breast – Male and Female.

Anatomy Lesson #51 was not written to be titillating (hah).

Seriously, it was written as a public service. The incidence of breast disease is so high, it behoves one to understand breast structure and function so as to better understand prognosis, disease progression and treatment options should the need arise.

Breast anatomy also helps us understand the diseases plaguing the breast: cancer, cysts, fibrocystic changes, mastitis, gynecomastia, to name a few.

The worst: Though breast cancer in males is relatively rare, only 1 per 1000 adult males, the incidence of invasive breast cancer in US women is 1 in 8!!!

Read about the breast in Outlander books; there’s a mess of quotes to choose from! <G> This one is particularly special…  From Voyager, the reunion between Claire and A. Malcolm:

A little reluctantly, I took his hand, and stepped out of the inadequate shelter of the remains of my dress. He drew me gently in, to stand between his knees as he sat on the bed. Then he kissed me softly, once on each breast, and laid his head between them, his breath coming warm on my bare skin. “Your breast is like ivory,” he said softly, the word almost “breest” in the Highland Scots that always grew broad when he was truly moved. His hand rose to cup one breast, his fingers tanned into darkness against my own pale glow. 

See Captain Raines inform Claire that if a woman bears her breasts before a tempest, the seas will be calmed in. Huh??? Industriously chewing (tough mutton?), the Captain waxes poetic about the sailing superstition:

“After all, on this ship, your very presence is ill luck… By rights, you and Mistress MacKimmie should this moment be bare breasted! … A woman’s bare breasts calm an angry sea… The figure head at the bow, she bears her breasts for you, and prevents us being subject to any curses.”

Claire is not amused. Not on Jamie’s watch!!! 

The deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

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Photo Credit: Outlander ep 307, The doldrums

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Fun Fact: Melanin 

Anatomy Def: Melanin is a group of natural pigments found in animal skin, eyes, hair, feathers, scales or ink (the cephalopods). 

Outlander Def: That man – That hair! ‘Nuf said!

“Am I to wait all day?” 

As Jamie carefully cleans a horse’s hoof, Lords Ellesmere, spews rancor at the groom slowness. Adequate cleaning takes time –  the lad has a great work ethic.  Jamie, not Ellesmere! <G>

Ellesmere pouts and spouts:

“My god! If a child of mine had hair that color, I’d drown him before he drew a second breath.” 

Truer words! In a few short months, his Lordship very nearly slays his newborn son – a babe festooned with sprouts of golden-ginger hair!!!

Learn about melanin in Anatomy Lesson 6: Claire’s Hair – Jamie’s Mane or JHRC!

Melanin is the pigment of human skin, irises, hair and neurons. Three types are known: 

  • eumelanin  – brown, black pigment –  most common type
  • pheomelanin – golden yellow, red pigment –  the type in Jamie’s hair 
  • neuromelanin  – dark pigment – of some neurons, function unknown

Ergo, Jamie’s red hair receives its color by virtue of pheomelanin, a chemical variant of melanin! 

Less than 2% of the world’s population have red hair. More to the point, Scotland and Ireland enjoy the highest percentages of natural ginger heads in the world!

Read about Jamie’s hair in Voyager book. Clever Claire reflects on Jamie’s preparations for the governor’s ball in Jamaica. she quotes from a classic English scholar and poet:

“Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?

And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists?

And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air?

Oh they’re taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.”

Jamie put down the wig in his hand and raised one eyebrow at me in the mirror. I grinned at him and went on, declaiming with gestures:

“ ’Tis a shame to human nature, such a head of hair as his;

In the good old time ’twas hanging for the colour that it is;

Though hanging isn’t bad enough and flaying would be fair

For the nameless and abominable colour of his hair!”

“Did ye not tell me ye’d studied for a doctor, Sassenach?” he inquired. “Or was it a poet, after all?”

“Not me,” I assured him, coming to straighten his stock. “Those sentiments are by one A. E. Housman.”

Housman’s entire poem can be read here: https://www.poemtree.com/poems/OhWhoIsThat.htm  

See Ellesmere’s reprehensible behavior regarding the “abominable” color of Jamie’s hair in Outlander episode 304, Of Lost Things. At least, Lady Isobel seems displeased with the chortling auld men. Braw lassie!

The deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

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Photo Credits: Sony/Starz