The Chorda Tympani is a small branch of the facial nerve that passes through the middle ear. During first year medical school, my cadaver lab instructor offered a 6-pack of beer to any student who could locate this tiny nerve intact. I found it. He reneged.
I later wanted to somehow convey the experience of cadaver lab: dissecting a human body that has been drained of blood and soaked in formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde for six months until all the various tissues congeal into an indistinguishable greenish-grey conglomeration. Naturally, I turned to Lewis Carroll for inspiration.
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THE CHORDA TYMPANI
‘Twere basilar, and the lithy nose
Did wod and wibble on the gabe;
All mimpy were the smegma toes
And the bonetome hacks outgrave.
.
“Beware the Chorda Tympani –
In jaws that bit, it jowls now dead!
Beware the fascial planes, and skin
With care this mummied head.”
.
He took his scalpy blade in hand,
By Grant his search was lead;
Then crouched he by the stainless tank
And thought a while instead.
.
And as in oafish stead he thought
The Chorda Tymp. with sheath of grey,
Came wiggling though the pulpy lot
And dangled where it lay!
.
One, two! One two! And round and round
His blunt-end probe went slurpy-slop!
He left it bare, and called for aide
To see what he did crop.
.
“And hast thou found the Chorda Tymp?
To me you this must show
That may be it! But do you know
From whence its fibers go?”
.
‘Twere basilar, and the lithy nose
Did wod and wibble on the gabe;
All mimpy were the smegma toes
And the bonetome hacks outgrave.
.
KURT BIEHL ©1986
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