AS TO THE 'FUNNY BONE'

New Zealand Tablet, 12 July 1906, Page 37

AS TO THE 'FUNNY BONE'

Everybody is familiar with the disagreeable sensation in the finger-tips known aa a « knock on the funny-bone.' 1 In reality it is not a bone at all that causes the curious tingling, but an important nerve (the ulnar) which runs down the arm. It is for th£ most part deep-seated in the flesh, but near the back of the elbow, lies close to the 'under-surface of the skin. * « When this- is accidentally struck, the nerve conveys the impression to the brain. But it happens that sensations brought by the ulnar nerve are those usually which have been caused at its ends, the fingertips ; and the "brain obstinately refuses to believe that any messages can possibly come along the tele-graph-wire of the nerve except from the regular stations. So whew the knock is experienced and the message received, the brain refers it as having come from the termini of the line instead of from somewhere midway, and despite the actual fact, assures "us that it is our fingers that are tingling, and not our elbow. In the same way, soldiers who have lost their legs sometimes say they feel a pain in the toes. What is happening is that the remainder of the nerve that used to go to the toes is being affected, and the brain (which is the real and only seat of all pain) cannot acoount for the sensation except as coming from the absent foot.