If comic-book characters repeatedly beat each other over the head, they hurt their brains, study fin

[CHIMO]

A study by German researchers has concluded what many Asterix fans have long suspected: Traumatic brain injuries were rampant among Roman soldiers stationed in northwestern Gaul around 50 B.C.

The researchers at the Department for Neurosurgery, at Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, studied the 34 Asterix books and found 704 cases of traumatic brain injury. The study found that the injuries were overwhelmingly suffered by men and 98.8 per cent were caused by assault.

There was no breakdown on whether the assaults involved fists, menhirs or slightly smelly fish, however.

The Romans, who made up nearly 65 per cent of the brain injuries, may have wished that they had been wearing better designed equipment because the study found that while most victims were wearing helmets, these were lost during altercations nearly 90 per cent of the time.

http://www.healthzone.ca/health/newsfeatures/article/1009242--if-comic-book-characters-repeatedly-beat-each-other-over-the-head-they-hurt-their-brains-study-finds?bn=1

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. Tintin's failure to go through puberty...

....was ascribed to traumatic brain injury way back in 2004, in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

[Stuart G]

2. You know...about this one, I really feel bad for Wiley Coyotte, some sort of brain damage indeed..