514 Unusual Structure of Cervical Vcrtehrce, 



ation or habits of animated beings), that the naturalist, at the 

 same time that he gains to himself an endless source of amuse- 

 ment and instruction, can ever hope to contribute to the 

 support of science, and add a powerful stimulus to investi- 

 gation, the final results of which become not unfrequently of 

 most extensive and permanent advantage to mankind. But, 

 independently of this, supposing that such or such a fact 

 leads to nothing beyond the knowledge of the bare circum- 

 stance observed, still it is an operation of nature, and, there- 

 fore, ought not to be passed over by the general observer, 

 whose professed object is to record new phenomena for the 

 purpose of still better comprehending the magnificence and 

 beautiful order of creation, and of more worthily adoring its 

 beneficent Creator. The case to which I beg to invite the 

 attention of yourself and your readers is one of unusual 

 structure in the first two vertebrae (verto, to turn) of the neck 

 of some large quadruped, as exhibited in a specimen picked 

 up at a bone-mill at Grimsby, not long ago, by myself. 

 {Jg. 102.) 



It will be proper to explain the ordinary structure of these 

 two bones in vertebrated animals, so as more clearly to de- 

 monstrate the extraordinary formation in the specimen referred 



to. When it is re- 

 membered that the 

 [object of the back- 

 bone or spine is to 

 give support to the 

 whole frame; that 

 at the same time it 

 must be firm and 

 flexible, so as to 

 allow of free mo- 

 Ition; its structure 

 [exhibits a most in- 

 teresting example 

 of adaptation of 

 means to the end 

 required. 



The whole backbone consists of a certain number of se- 

 parate bones, locking one within the other in succession, and 

 moving on each other by means of smooth surfaces, which 

 admit of a sufficient degree of play, at the same time that 

 strong connecting ligaments prevent dislocation. Each bone 

 or vertebra is in the shape of an irregular ring, thicker in 

 front, which thicker portion is termed the body : processes, 

 or bony projections, stick out laterally, obliquely, and poste- 



