Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

The common (“classic”) form of clubfoot. Talipes is made up of the Latin talus (ankle) + pes (foot). Equino- indicates the heel is elevated (like a horse’s) and -varus indicates it is turned inward. With this type of clubfoot, the foot is turned in sharply and the person seems to be walking on their ankle. A clubfoot, also known…

Clubfoot. The Latin word talipes was compounded from talus (ankle) + pes (foot) since, with the common (“classic”) type of clubfoot (talipes equinovarus), the foot is turned in sharply and the person seems to be walking on their ankle. Talipes equinovalgus: Malformation of the foot evident at birth in which the heel is elevated like a horse’s hoof (equino-) and the…

To poison, infect, or spoil.

Having to do with touch. For example, tactile signs of disease are signs that are perceptible by touch, such as roughness of the skin.

A rapid heart rate, usually defined as greater than 100 beats per minute.

Black spot (in French), a small ulcer covered with a black crust at the site of a tick bite, characteristic of several tick-borne rickettsial diseases.

The practice of cutting tablets in half. The reason is usually financial. To reduce costs, a physician may prescribe pills that have twice the dose a patient needs and then ask the patient to split the pills in half. To make sure the patient takes the correct dose, patients are given (or buy) a device…

In pharmacy, a medication, usually mixed with a binder powder, molded and pressed into the form of a tablet, traditionally circular or disk-shaped, but more recently also oblong or differently shaped. From the French tablette, little table.

The symbols T1 through T12 represent the 12 thoracic vertebrae. The thoracic vertebrae are situated between the cervical (neck) vertebrae and the lumbar vertebrae. The thoracic vertebrae provide attachment for the ribs and make up part of the back of the thorax (the chest).

Seen on a prescription, t.i.d. means three times a day. It is an abbreviation for “ter in die” which in Latin means three times a day. The abbreviation t.i.d. is sometimes written without a period either in lower-case letters as “tid” or in capital letters as “TID”. However it is written, it is one of a number…