Fun Fact: teres major

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anatomy def: Paired shoulder muscles, each passing from a scapula to corresponding humerus. Teres major (yep, there’s a minor, too!) draws humerus toward body and rotates it inwardly (internal rotation).

Outlander def: Teres major is marked by a major big red arrow. This muscle can shoulder its way out of any freezing millpond. No problemo! The bump of teres major is clearly visible as Jamie rotates his left humerus toward the torso. Sista Jen, hie away and gie your bro some privacy!

Learn about teres major in Anatomy Lesson #20, “Arms! Arms! Arms! – Redux.” Although most of this muscle lies in the upper back, its tendon inserts on the humerus and moves this bone.

Read about Jamie’s shoulder muscles in Outlander book. Nurse Claire is appalled at the ruined skin overlying his smooth shoulder and back muscles… Courtesy of you-know-who!

“Ye seem to have a knack for letting me know you’re sorry for it, without makin’ me feel pitiful about it.” He sat patiently, not moving as I circled behind him and inspected his back. I didn’t know how bad he thought it was, but it was bad enough. Even by candlelight and having seen it once before, I was appalled. Before, I had seen only the one shoulder. The scars covered his entire back from shoulders to waist. While many had faded to little more than thin white lines, the worst formed thick silver wedges, cutting across the smooth muscles.

And from Dragonfly in Amber book, we conger an image of Jamie’s large shoulders and muscles! Claire’s soaped fingers pass over teres major….no doubt about it! Ha ha!

The soap bubbles ran down across the wet, gleaming curves of his shoulders, and my hands followed them, spreading the slickness so that my fingers seemed to float on the surface of his skin. He was big, I thought. Near him so much, I tended to forget his size, until I saw him suddenly from a distance, towering among smaller men, and I would be struck anew by his grace and the beauty of his body. But he sat now with his knees nearly underneath his chin, and his shoulders filled the tub from one side to the other.

See Jamie’s left teres major muscle (white dot) at the old mill stream in Starz episode 112, Lallybroch! Need a towel, laddie? Sorry, ye are on your own! <G>

A deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

Fun Fact: Metacarpals

image of a woman's hands

Anatomy def: Metacarpals are one of 5 bones of the hand, situated between wrist and digits. Comparable bones of the foot are metatarsals.

Outlander def: Hand bones on which BJ plays snap, crackle, and pop! Or, was it knick knack paddy-whack, break the puir lad’s bones? Gah!

Learn the five metacarpals in Anatomy Lesson #22, Jamie’s Hand – Symbol of Sacrifice. Metacarpals are numbered 1-5 beginning with the thumb side. Together, five metacarpals form the bony skeleton in the palm of hand!

Read about metacarpals in Outlander book. But, of course, they are there! …Claire muses about metacarpals and Crainesmuir village while riding her pony behind Dougal!

In fact, I had amused myself on the ride to the smithy by imagining an aerial view of the village as a representation of a skeletal forearm and hand; the High Street was the radius, along which lay the shops and businesses and the residences of the more well-to-do. St. Margaret’s Lane was the ulna, a narrower street running parallel with the High, tenanted by smithy, tannery, and the less genteel artisans and businesses. The village square (which, like all village squares I had ever seen, was not square at all, but roughly oblong) formed the carpals and metacarpals of the hand, while the several lanes of cottages made up the phalangeal joints of the fingers.

See Claire massage the healing metacarpals of Jamie’s left hand during opening credits of S.2!

A deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

 

Fun Fact: platysma

Dougal Mackenzie making a fierce face and on the battlefield used in a fun fact on Outlander Anatomy about platysma.

Anatomy def: Platysma is a thin, flat superficial sheet of muscle fibers extending from each clavicle (collar bone), up the neck, and ending near the angles of the mandible (lower jaw).

Outlander def: Aka, the grimacing muscles, platysmata (pl.) participate in a grimace: facial contortion due to strain, terror, disgust, pain, or wry amusement wherein strands of platysma web the neck skin! Weightlifters sometimes injury the platysmata as grimace with extraordinary effort.

See Dougal exhibit splendid radiating webs of platysma as he and his band of hairy lads demonstrate a heiland charge! Oh, a bit of Angus’ platysma, also gets into the act! Diana offers a picturesque description of Dougal’s charge (Dragonfly in Amber book):

Scottish clansmen fought according to their ancient traditions. Disdaining strategy, tactics, and subtlety, their method of attack was simplicity itself. Spotting the enemy within range, they dropped their plaids, drew their swords, and charged the foe, shrieking at the tops of their lungs. Gaelic shrieking being what it is, this method was more often successful than not. A good many enemies, seeing a mass of hairy, bare-limbed banshees bearing down on them, simply lost all nerve and fled.

Head for the hills! The Heiland Hills, that is! <G>

Learn about the platysma in Anatomy Lesson #11, Jamie’s Face or Ye do it Face to Face? and Anatomy Lesson #12, Claire’s Neck or The Ivory Tower.

Read about grimaces in Dragonfly in Amber book. The platysmata help create Jamie’s grimace:

“Haven’t you got any nerves?” I demanded of him. He grimaced at me in the mirror and put his hands over his stomach. “Aye, I have. But it takes me in the belly, not the hands. Have ye some of that stuff for cramp?”

And for Claire. Yep, she is contracting her platysmata too!

Obviously, I was going to need Jamie’s help. I grimaced at the thought of what he was likely to say about it.

Claire Fraser making a face used in a fun fact on Outlander Anatomy about platysma.

See Dougal’s platysmata fully activated in Starz episode 209, Je Suis Prest, and Claire’s as she fights the effects of Colum’s fortified rhenish in Starz episode 103, The Way Out. Hic!

A deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist