Anatomical lectures delivered …in the College of Edinburgh winter, 1773/4

1773-1774

Monro M175B

Manuscript. Edinburgh

‘The Monro Collection contains many manuscript lectures written by Alexander Monro primus, secundus, and tertius. This lecture is on bursae, fluid-filled sacs that are part of the anatomy of every moveable (synovial) joint in our body. Here, the bursae of the upper arm (humerus) are described at both the shoulder and elbow. Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697–1770) was the first to observe these, but Monro secundus (1733-1817) does point out that Albinus did not observe all bursae present in the body. Monro also comments that the shoulder joint is the most frequently luxated (dislocated) joint, as it still is today, in for example, contact sports like rugby. Clinical anatomists at Otago continue to research bursae using the technologies of ultrasound and MRI.’ This item in chosen by Louisa Baillie, University of Otago