Les «palimpsestes » lombrosiens

Palimpsests of Lombroso. In his time, Cesare Lombroso was a celebrated professor of legal medicine and psychiatry, considered throughout Europe as one of the founding fathers of criminal anthropology. Known above all for his Homme criminel, 1887, he published Palimsesti del Carcere several years later. In this work he analysed 800 items of prison graffiti from walls, furniture, pottery or indeed in the margins of books lent to inmates. This article gives an account of this remarkable collection, but also attempts to underline the préoccupations of Lambroso himself for whom the analysis of these texts should permit a closer understanding of prison conditions and the psychology of the prisoners themselves. Such an analysis was of course profoundly innovative at the time, and served to demonstrate today, if indeed it needs demonstrating, the feeble évolution of this instrument of repression in our modem societies...Cesare Lombroso est un célèbre professeur de médecine légale et de psychiatrie, considéré partout en Europe comme l'un des fondateurs de l'anthropologie criminelle. Connu surtout pour son ouvrage L'Homme criminel, paru en 1887, il publie quelques années plus tard ce Palimsesti del Carcere, dans lequel il analyse 800 graffitis relevés en prison (sur les murs, les meubles, les poteries ou encore dans les marges des ouvrages confiés aux prisonniers). Cet article rend compte de cette collecte remarquable, mais tente aussi de mettre en évidence les préoccupations de Lombroso, pour lequel l'analyse de ces textes doit permettre de mieux approcher la condition carcérale et la psychologie des prisonniers. Analyse profondément novatrice en son temps, et qui démontre aujourd'hui, s'il en était besoin, la faible évolution de l'appareil répressif de nos sociétés.Portigliatti Barbos Mario. Les «palimpsestes » lombrosiens. In: Le Monde alpin et rhodanien. Revue régionale d'ethnologie, n°1-2/2004. Cicatrices murales. Les graffiti de prison, sous la direction de Joël Candau et Philippe Hameau. pp. 125-130

Distribution of osteonic and interstitial components in the human femoral shaft with reference to structure, calcification and mechanical properties

This paper analyzes the distribution of osteons and interstitial bone in the femoral compacta according to their structure, degree of calcification and mechanical properties. Three cross sections, 100 μm thick, each located 1 cm from the next, were prepared by grinding from the middle third of a human femoral shaft. Starting from the premise that in lamellar bone, lamellae whose fiber bundles and crystallites have a longitudinal course withstand loading by tension, whereas those whose fiber bundles and crystallites have a transversal course withstand loading by compression, each osteon and fragment of interstitial bone has been given a number recording the percentage of its surface consisting of lamellae with transversally oriented fiber bundles and crystallites (bright under the polarizing microscope). The degree of calcification of the same structures was determined microradiographically. The distribution of both osteons and interstitial bone was assessed using a tungsten grid for reference. The total surface of each bone microstructure, and the percentage of that surface consisting of bright lamellae, were all calculated using a Zeiss Videoplan. Our results confirm the view that the distribution of both osteons and interstitial bone is mainly related to their structure - and hence to their mechanical properties. In addition, bone remodeling seems to be most active in areas capable of supporting tensile stress