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GRAYS ANATOMYHello, my name is Henry. No, not Ford. Gray! I've been asked to be your Grays Anatomy tour guide today. Where should we start? With the skull? Or the foot? There's a good case for both. Shall we spin a coin? Heads we start with the foot, you say? Whaaat? Okay the foot it is. Did you know there are 26 bones in the foot? And because they all articulate with at least one other bone, and most with several other bones, there are probably about 100 joints. I could count but ... about a hundred will do, eh! We don't need to be that rigorous. 
Each one of those joints has hundreds of receptors continually telling the brain exactly where you are in space. Without having to look at your foot, you know precisely where it is. Right? And of course, some of them are pain receptors, so each of those 100 joints, not to mention the noci-ceptors in the ligaments and muscles, can cause you pain. So I have prepared a special page for you to start your Grays Anatomy tour. Go on, take a peep at what chiropractic has to offer your sore feet. I'll wait right here for you until you are done. No sweat. I'll be preparing some pics of the hip while you're away. Bit of a Cook's tour, I'm afraid. So we are going to give the lower leg and the knee the miss for now. Perhaps later, we'll come back, time permitting. So, the hip joint.. That huge strong joint that fixes the thigh bone (femur) to your pelvis. We call it a ball and socket joint. Pretty obvious why, if you follow this link to the hip. 
Take your time, I'll be waiting for you for the next leg of your Grays Anatomy tour! So, all done with the hip? Fearfully and wonderfully made hey. Open to wear and tear though, and if you abuse your hip ... it can bite back. Thought I'd tell you a few things about myself. Did you know that it's exactly 150 years ago that I published the first atlas of human anatomy? 1858. I was just lucky actually. Right place at the right time. My forbears had to work in great secrecy, snatch bodies, visit grave yards, bribe the hospital administrators. One of my colleagues, William Harvey even dissected his father and sister when they died! Just couldn't get bodies. Not legally anyway. So we're bringing out a special
40th edition for you this year.
Meantime, lets continue our Cook's, oops Grays Anatomy tour. To the Sacro-iliac joint we go. 
Right, done? I'm ready to move on. My own SI-joint used to give me a lot of trouble till I broke with my medical colleagues and sneaked off to see the chiro. Glad I did! Now for the real misery. The lumbar spine. Boy, these are joints you'd better exercise, or they can really give you grief. Want to see what I've prepared for you? The Lumbar spine. 
"It was a very good year." Remember that lyric? Good old Franky. Jup, I was born in 1827. Died in a bad year, mind you, but more of that later. I was lucky to be able to study anatomy and got a lectureship at St. George’s in London. That's where I started my Atlas of Human Anatomy. Now we're going to move on to he mid-back and chest. Interesting part of the body. A big part of its function was to protect the vulnerable organs. Arrow in the heart, and you're done for! Hence the ribs. 
And now the last leg of the Grays Anatomy tour. Not bored I hope. I'm going to put the neck and shoulder together, because they work hand in glove. Well, I guess that should be neck and shoulder ... when the shoulder goes wrong, look first to the neck.
My wife had a way of saying she and her friends talk constantly, but they've still never said half the things they know. I'm sure it's true, and for every word they need healthy TMJ joints. Plenty of yakking, and plenty of pain too when they give grief. Try to avoid work in your mouth under general anaesthetic, if humanly possible, and I do wonder about that gum ... TMJ joint. 
Well, that's the end of the Gray's Tour. End of me too. No sooner had I finished my Atlas, than I was called to attend to my cousin. Smallpox, you know. Yes, we share all things in common in our family, even our viruses. It was a very bad year, 1861. Don't tell me that vaccinations are all bad. To go from Grays Anatomy to more information about Henry Gray and the anatomists.
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