Aaron Elkins

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In a book I did a few years ago, Gideon Oliver examines the scant skeletal remains of a homeless big-city drifter and informs the police that, while the man may have spent his final years in an urban environment, he very probably worked for a long time--possibly even grew up on--a farm. Not a very big farm, either, but a small one, he adds casually (just to show off a little more). How does he reach such a conclusion from a few bones? : He finds evidence of what anthropologists call "milker's neck." When a person milks a cow in the traditional manner, he sits up against the cow's side and reaches under to grasp the teats. His head rests at a somewhat unnatural angle against the animal's flank. When the cow shifts, which it does frequently, it puts pressure on the milker's neck. The result over time can be compression-fracturing and partial dislocation of the lower cervical vertebrae . . . "milker's neck." Sometimes the victim is completely unaware that this has happened; he knows only that he's got a heck of a headache. On the Forensic tidbits page you'll find other interesting tidbits.

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