Starz episode 313 Eye of the Storm
Anatomy def: The axis is the second cervical (C2) vertebra, situated near the top of spine but below the atlas (C1 vertebra). As the head rotates from side-to-side, skull and C1 pivot as a single unit around the axis.
Outlander def: Mistress Abernathy didna see Claire grab that machete! Else, her head would have twisted wildly from side-to-side, as in NO-NO (she is a twisted sista <G>)! Claire, the surgeon, kens proper use of a blade. Here, “off with her head” takes on a whole new meaning!
Learn about the axis vertebra in Anatomy Lesson #53, Dr. Abernathy Meets Pretty Lady and also in Anatomy Lesson #12, Claire’s Neck or The Ivory Tower.
Read about the axis vertebra in Voyager book. Yes, Herself explains that a dull blade was used to hack through segments of the axis, removing pretty lady’s head! Here in Dr. Abernathy ’s office:
The wide body of the axis had a deep gouge; the posterior zygapophysis had broken clean off, and the fracture plane went completely through the centrum of the bone.
Joe’s finger moved over the line of the fracture plane. “See here? The bone’s not just cracked, it’s gone right there. Somebody tried to cut this lady’s head clean off. With a dull blade,” he concluded with relish.
See Claire cleave off the witch’s head at the axis in Starz episode 313, Eye of the Storm. Two hundred years in the future, Claire and Geillis will meet again – when Mistress Abernathy is nothing more than “dem bones!”
A deeply grateful,
Outlander Anatomist