Anatomy

Flesh forgets: bone remember.

That's a famous quote from the forensic thriller writer Jon Jefferson. Sue Black, a Scottish forensic anthropologist and anatomist, cited this on the first page of her book Written in Bone.  

It has taken me almost one month to finish the book, which runs its chapters from brain box all the way to the foot. Being a doctor, I shouldn't have problem with reading her detailed depiction of bones with brutal trauma or finger bone crumbled to ashes after fire accident. 

Still, the stories are somewhat uncomfortable. That's too much for me to read too many chapters within a day. Reading forensic stories at bedtime is even worse, unless you're fine with being jolted awake suddenly at night. I would certainly hope not.

But then, occasionally, I read something that resonated with my personal experience. And probably that of many medical interns too. Sue talked about an oncology nurse who had spent so much time over the years trying to find the veins on the backs of patients' hands that she had come to recognise them by their hands and jewellery as much as by their faces. That's at least some sense of humanity.