OPHIDIAN A CR OB A TS. 211 



no ribs attached to them are in form precisely Hke the other 

 joints, physiologists tell us that a snake has ' no neck.' By 

 way of simplifying matters we just now called those two 

 joints an invariable neck. But in the way of cervical or 

 neck vertebrae, however, we must bear in mind that a true 

 anatomical neck, in the eyes of science, a snake has not. 

 Some of the four-legged reptiles have a true neck, that is, 

 they have cervical vertebrae which differ from dorsal, lumbar, 

 etc. vertebrae, as we ourselves and mammals in general have ; 

 because four-legged reptiles have a breast-bone and limbs 

 to support, and their neck varies in length. For example, 

 a tortoise has nine cervical or neck joints, a monitor lizard 

 six, and a salamander only one. 



But so also do the necks of mammals vary very greatly in 

 length, while all, without exception, are formed of seven joints, 

 only seven vei'tebrce ; a man, a whale, a giraffe, and a mouse 

 possess each seven cervical vertebrae, different in form from 

 the rest of the joints of the spinal column. We might say that 

 in appearance a whale has no neck, but its seven neck joints 

 are flat and close as seven cards or seven pennies, while 

 those of the giraffe are extraordinarily prolonged ; and in 

 ourselves — -well, of course, the reader will admit the perfec- 

 tion of symmetry in our own necks, and the seven joints, 

 therefore, are precisely of the proper size. 



While the spine of a snake is 'simple' in respect of its 

 joints being all formed on the same plan, it is the reverse 

 of simple in its wonderfully complex structure. Professor 

 Huxley, in his delightful lecture, said that 'the most beauti- 

 ful piece of anatomy he knew was the vertebra of a snake.' 

 Professor Owen thus anatomically describes it : ' The verte- 



