Radiology of the Hand

I am proud that this study of the hand appears in the series Exercises in Radiological Diagnosis founded by A. WACKEN­ HEIM. From time eternal, man has tried to explain the numerous configurations and lines of the hand in order to reveal the true character of a person and to display his life. The importance of the symbolism of the hand is reflected in its role in the cultural life of the old world. Therefore, it is not astanishing that the first book about the hand, by Johannes Hartlieb, was devoted to Chiromancy, and that it was so successful that it went through four editions since the second half of the fifteenth century. When Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895 asked his wife to lay her hand on a photographic plate covered with black paper and exposed it to the radiation he had just discovered, it marked the beginning of radiology. Today the study of the hand concerns only 2%-4% of the activity of radiology. It nevertheless reveals an amazing quantity and variety of pathology. That is the reason for this work. - The authors wishes to thank his friends Y. DIRHEIMER, rheumatolog1st, J. C. DoscH, traumatologist, and G. Fou­ CHER, surgeon, who provided some of the material for the illustrations. P. BouRJAT VII Contents Part One: Iconography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Part Two: Commentary with Corresponding Schemata 117 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 . . .