NUMERICAL VARIATION IN THE HUMAN SPINE. 299 



however, that it is uot between the axis and the fused vertebra, but iu the former, and 

 that, though iu general transverse, it does uot correspond to the line of the joiut. 



1392. — The two vertebrae uucut. On the front the place of union of the bodies is 

 marked by what seems to liave once been a disc, now thorovighly co-ossified with the 

 bodies. That of the axis is very notably short, 3.5 cm. The total length is 5. cm. The 

 left costal elements and transverse processes are very much nearer together than on the 

 right, so as to make it highly probable that a nerve in passing out would l)e compressed, 

 although, as in the preceding case, tlie foramina are about equal at the canal. The trans- 

 verse foramen on the riglit is open laterally. Though there is a suggestion of injury, it is 

 probable that the costal ^ element w^as never perfectly developed. The wliole left side 

 of the specimen is smaller than the right. The fusion of the laminae is there more com- 

 plete. The spinous process of the axis is bifid. The right luilf of the spinous process of 

 the 3d vertebra is present, the left one is wanting. 



Probable Extra Half Sacral Vertebra. 



939o-o. — Tlie specimen is the left half of a sacrum and last hmibar, probably from a 

 young person. Tlie Hue of union of the lateral mass of the 1st sacral with that of the '2d, 

 suggests that not impossibly it is a sacralized 24th. The lamina and spinous process of 

 the 1st sacral are widely separated from tliose above, and tliougli in apposition with those 

 of the next below are not fused with them. Lnmediately below the tip of the spine of 

 this 1st sacral is another, smaller tip, coming from the right, which evidently can by no 

 possibility have belonged to a lower vertebra. It is quite distinct from the 1st sacral of 

 the left, but fused with the 2d of tliat side. It can hardly be doubted that there was 

 reduplication of half an arch. 



Cervical Ribs. 



725.2. — Obtained In' uie at Bowdoiu, in 1873. A 7th cervical vertebra with a small 

 rib on the left about 3.8 cm. long, ending in a point. On the right the costal element is 

 wanting. 



9379.37. — Male, white. A ligamentous preparation of the last three cervical and the 

 first three thoracic vertebrae, with the proximal portions of the ribs. There is a pair of 

 small cervical ribs, ending free. Measured in a straight line, tlie right one is 3.4 cm. 

 long. The left one is probably about the same, Init the end is broken. The small head 

 of each rib rests on an outgr(jwth from the body some 4 nun. long. The spread of the 



1 Tliis term is applied to the piece of bone forming tlie floor of the gutter for the nerve. 



