[Patrick C]

Ben Holmes Wrote:Presuming that the large head wound were in the back of the head - WHAT MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY WOULD BE APPROPRIATE TO DESCRIBE IT?

Ah so that is the "question" ....and the point of the question is what....? To help you decide that the descriptions of the head wound show that JFK was struck from the front because the wound was occipital? Even though the Zapruder film shows the wound to be above the ear....

Anyway, 

To start, depends what you mean by the "back of the head". Most people would say the back of the head was the whole area behind the ear. The medical profession as I have stated to you, often use occipital and occipital / parietal to describe the back of the head.The JFK wound was largely parietal and extended somewhat into the occipital and temporal bones.

McAdmas gives an excellent, well balanced and senisble appraisal of the whole thing on his web site including this quote from Dr Grossman.

Quote:But speaking to the occipital question, Grossman [one of the Parkland doctors and] a neurosurgeon, suggested that part of the confusion surrounding the location of the head wound could be the result of the imprecision with which the term "occipital" is used. While the occiput refers specifically to a bone in the lower back section of the head, Grossman said many doctors loosely use the term to refer to "the back fifth of the head . . . there is this ambiguity about what constitutes the occipital and parietal area . . . It's all very imprecise." (Boston Sunday Globe, June 21, 1981.)

Of course you will not be satisifed by the above, which I as an educated man,  would suggest to you is more than an adequate explanation of the whole silly debate of the location of the head wound.

You may continue to tie yourself up in knots Ben with your twisted and cryptic logic, obviously it appeals to you, for me it gives me mild amusement for a few minutes each week and reminds me of the gulf that exists between people like you and intelligent and rational human beings who run the rings around you that you do not see. Pip Pip.