LANDMARKS 

 MEDICAL AND SURGICAL 



I. IN clinical teaching, we often have occasion to point 

 out, on the surface of the living body, what may be called 

 ' medical and surgical landmarks.' By ' landmarks ' we 

 mean surface-marks, such as lines, eminences, depressions, 

 which are guides to, or indications of, deeper-seated parts. 

 This practice is not only most useful but absolutely 

 necessary; because many, even advanced students of anatomy, 

 are not so ready as they ought to be in their recognition of 

 parts when covered by skin. Students who may be familiar 

 enough with bones, muscles, blood-vessels, or viscera in the 

 dissected subject, are often sadly at fault when they come to 

 put this knowledge into practice in the living. 



For instance, ask a student to put his finger on the exact 

 place where he would feel for the head of .the radius, the 

 coracoid process of the scapula, the tubercle of the scaphoid 

 bone in the foot ; ask him to compress effectually one of the 

 main arteries ; to chalk the line of its course ; to map on the 

 chest the position of the heart and the several valves at its 

 base ; to trace along the walls of the chest the outline of the 

 lungs and pleura ; to point out the bony prominences about 

 the joints, and their relative position in the different motions 

 of the joints ; test him about the muscles and tendons which 

 can be seen or felt as they stand out in relief or remain in 

 repose ; let him introduce his finger into the several orifices 

 of the body, and say what parts are accessible to the touch : 

 questions such as these, even a good anatomist, unaccus- 



B 



