2005 Press Releases
Brittle Bones and Breaks - Last Lecture Series, 2 November
27 Oct 2005
UCC’s highly successful Science Lecture Series continues on Wednesday
evening next (2 November), with a lecture by Clive Lee, Professor of
Anatomy, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, (RCSI) on Brittle Bones
and Breaks.
Professor Lee, who is also Visiting Professor of Biomechanics and
Tissue Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, will look at the
developments in anatomical science since his distant predecessor in the
College of Surgeons, Abraham Colles, after whom the Colles Fracture was
named, declared that mathematics could not be applied to medical
sciences. He got that one wrong, according to Professor Lee, as
mathematics and bioengineering are leading to a better understanding of
the forces at work in bone fractures or breaks, and in predicting
them. Colles also said that the function of anatomy was to
describe the position of the various parts and to point out the
subservience of anatomical knowledge to surgical practice. Quite right
in this case, Professor Lee adds, except that nowadays, the words
‘clinical practice’ would be substituted for ‘surgical practice’.
Colles (1773-1843), was the 6th Professor of Anatomy at the RCSI, and
became its President in 1802 when only 28-years-of-age. Professor Lee
is the 29th Professor of Anatomy at RCSI.
Despite Colles’s assertion, mathematical modelling has become a
valuable tool in bioengineering and in advancing the predictive powers
of medicine in the area of bone fractures, although it is not yet
possible to forecast with certainty who may be susceptible. Prediction
and prevention are still some way off, Professor Lee says.
Nevertheless, some stark statistics do point to the elderly as one of
the main at-risk groups. Some 50 per cent of elderly people who sustain
hip fractures cannot walk afterwards without assistance, a further 25
per cent are unable to live independently, and the remaining 25 per
cent die after six months. Also, in the over-50 age bracket,
one-in-three women will contract osteoporosis while the figure for men
is one-in-twelve.
Professor Lee will also discuss the work of two eminent men of medical
science, Samuel Haughton (1821-1897) who was both Professor of Geology
at Trinity College and Registrar of the Medical School, and Michéal Mac
Conaill, a former Professor of Anatomy at UCC. Haughton was the son of
a Quaker but was ordained an Anglican in 1847 order to become a Fellow
of Trinity. It was he who described the biomechanics of judicial
hanging! Mac Conaill, conducted seminal research on the lubrication of
joints as well as muscle and joint mechanics, prior to his death in
1987.
This year’s series has been called the Last Lecture Series and is part
of UCC’s contribution to the European Capital of Culture celebrations
in Cork during 2005. The series is organised by Professor William
Reville, Science Faculty, UCC.
The lecture will be given in UCC’s Boole Lecture Theatre 4 at 8 pm on
Wednesday, 2 November. As always, members of the public are invited to
attend and admission is free.
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