ELIZABETH KATE SWITAJ
Articulation VIII
that the present is strictly a physiological view of man
that the living body may abandon a portion of the matter, of which it was formed
that the bones of the animal were red
that they would have been rejected as fables, if they had not been stated by men, whose testimony is indisputable
that they extend uniformly from one extremity of the body to the other
that all these membranes exist in a normal manner in the economy
that transfusion has become celebrated
that the blood soon ceases to circulate in simple spaces
that the vascular apparatus forms a complete circle
that he introduced into the femoral artery a quill
that sparks may be elicited by collision with steel
that the skin and tendons resist a long time the action of the stomach
that they do not press against each other in any position of the body
that the pleura envelopes the lungs
that this cord is endowed with an extreme sensibility
that the principal use of the nose is to direct the inspired air
that the sense of vision has need of a kind of education
that it should present great solidity in its articulation
that in the superior animals the thoracic almost always alone serve for flight
Articulation IX
that his directions may be intelligently carried out
that she may be able to describe to the physician the exact location of pain
that receives the eye
that these structures disintegrate very rapidly
that we are forced to breathe
Articulation XII
that at first sight they appear to form a homogeneous whole
that mercury may be made to pass between them
that the fourth and fifth are always smaller than the rest
that they give passage to small veins
that bone is joined to the temporal
that their number is greater in females
that they become livid for some time when mulberries are eaten
that some of the teeth are double
that I consider it useless to recapitulate their articulations
that they also receive nerves
that they are completely protected from pressure when the bones move upon each other
that the interlockings seem to circumscribe the face
that bone
that bone
that bone
that name
that body, these filaments
that they are entirely wanting
_____
All lines in “Articulation VIII” are excerpted from H. (Henri) Milne-Edwards, Outlines of Anatomy and Physiology, trans. J. F. W. (John Foster Williams) Lane (Boston: C.C. Little and J. Brown, 1841).
All lines in “Articulation IX” are excerpted from Le Roy Lewis, Anatomy and Physiology for Nurses, 3rd ed. (Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders company, 1914).
All lines in “Articulation XII” are excerpted from Hippolyte Cloquet and Robert Knox, A System of Human Anatomy (Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart, 1828).
Elizabeth Kate Switaj (website) is the Chair of Liberal Arts at the College of the Marshall Islands. She holds a PhD in English from Queen’s University Belfast and has taught in Japan and China. Her first collection, Magdalene & the Mermaids, is published by Paper Kite Press, and her poems have recently appeared in Hawaii Review, Potluck Mag, and Silver Birch Press.
