You Finished the Goose, with the Bones.

“And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw, Has lasted the rest of my life.”

—Lewis Carroll (1832–1898)

When I stayed in London for 3 months in 2016, I visited the British Library to borrow a book written by Dr. Grabb. In the lobby, I happened to see a special exhibition entitled “Happy 150th Birthday Alice!” to celebrate the passage of 150 years of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I was lucky to see Lewis Carroll’s original article with hand-drawn illustrations.

Among them, one illustration particularly intrigued me. While removing the cover from a platter, a youth is surprised and asks his old father something (Fig. 1). The legend for this drawing is as follows:

Fig. 1.

Illustration of “Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak.” Available at: http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com/2010/10/quote-lewis-carroll.html. Assessed on Oct 21, 2021.

“You are old,” said the youth, “and your jaws are too weak

For anything tougher than suet;

Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak —

Pray, how did you manage to do it?”

“In my youth,” said his father, “I took to the law,

And argued each case with my wife;

And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,

Has lasted the rest of my life.”

This poem, “You Are Old, Father William” is found in Chapter 5, “Advice from a Caterpillar,” in the 1865 book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Based on this poem, I understood that the aged man was proud of his jaw power (biting force).

When I think of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, my favorite movie star (Audrey Hepburn) comes to mind because she reminds me of the Queen of Hearts due to her regal demeanor. I do not believe that anyone would think that her mandibular angle and masseter muscle made her less charming even in old age (Fig. 2). In Asia, however, mandible angle ostectomy to achieve a slim chin has been popular for decades, and masseteric hypertrophy is now corrected using botulinum A toxin injections.

Fig. 2.

Audrey Hepburn in her old age in 1991. Photograph was taken by John Barrett and reproduced with permission from Alamy Limited (https://alamy.com).

In my training days, a senior resident in my department wrote a dissertation for his master’s degree and published it.[1] He made angle ostectomies in rabbit jaws and observed the masseter muscle histologically. He concluded that masseter muscle atrophy after ostectomy of the mandibular angle is not due to connective-tissue changes, but instead occurs as a result of individual muscle fiber atrophy accompanied by functional adaptation of sarcomeres and changes in muscle fiber types.

Another author measured the occlusal force of masseteric muscles after intramuscular injections of botulinum toxin A and proved that it reduces the occlusal force.[2] This treatment was found to be effective for temporomandibular joint disorder. However, the biting force must be reduced when treating masseteric hypertrophy for esthetic purposes.

As Alice recites in the poem above, elderly people need healthy teeth and four masticatory muscles (temporalis, masseter, medial, and lateral pterygoid). With regard to procedures to create a slim chin, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For good biting power in old age, I do think that the temporalis and masseter muscles are very important for the ability to finish a goose with its bones.