Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Did you know..........

.....the word Orthopedist was coined around 1740 and comes from orthos meaning straight, and ped, meaning children and literally means to straighten children. At that time rickets, osteomyelitis, tuberculosis and poliomyelitis were the main orthopedic problems often resulting in deformities. Correcting these deformities by straightening or aligning bones was commonly done by specialists who came to be called orthopedists.

.....the Achilles tendon, located between the calf muscle and the heel, is the thickest and strongest tendon in the body. It's named for the classical tale of Achilles who was dipped in the River Stix by his mother so as to become invulnerable. She held him by this tendon, which was not immersed, and later a mortal wound was inflicted on Achilles' heel.

......hypochondriac is made up of the prefix hypo-, meaning under, and chondr, meaning cartilage, and is used to refer to the region just below the rib cartilages on the abdomin. Hypochondriac came to be used to describe persons with imaginary ailments because of the discomforting sensations to hypochrondriac region often complained of but without any corresponding finding of disease.

Now you know. :-)

1 comment:

Jaxia said...

I'm going back to school now. I was going to go x-ray, but recently decided to go nursing instead. I'm just taking pre-reqs right now. I wish you the best and linked to you from my blog!