100 



eąually in the short interval betvveen the Iiead and the thorai, 

 scarcely deserving the nameofaneck, oi the Cetacea, and in the 

 long flexile neck of the Camel and the Giraffe. It was natūrai 

 that so marked a deviation from a general lavv should attract con- 

 siderable attention, and numerous skeletons of the animal in which 

 it was stated to occur have accordingly been examined by Cuvier, 

 Meckel, and others, who have ali, with the exceplion of the last- 

 named anatomist, concurred in the statement that nine ceivical 

 vertebrce exist ; Meckel alone hinting at the probability that what 

 had been previously regarded as the ninth cervical might, in truth, 

 be a first dorsal veriebra. On vvhat grounds M. Meckel was in- 

 duced to offer this suggestion does not appear ; it is probable that 

 he was led to it b)' the form of the vertebra itself, which is altogether 

 that of a dorsal vertebra ; or he may have been guided by a statement 

 made by Cuvier that in a young individual examined by him the 

 transverse processes of the ninth cervical vertebra, as he described 

 it, were not united to the vertebra itself, whence Cuvier was in- 

 duced to inquire, May not this be a small vestige of a rib ? Cuvier 

 does not appear to have noticed this detached portion of bone in 

 any but this young individual, nor as connected with any but that 

 which he continued, even in his latest work, to regard as the ninth 

 cervical vertebra. 



In two skeletons, however, vvhich Mr. Bell possesses, one of a 

 young individual and the other adult, there are bony detached 

 appendages on each side both of the eighth and ninth vertebrce, 

 reckoning from the cranium, and Mr. Bell is therefore disposed 

 to regard these vertebra; as being rather the first and second dorsal 

 than the eighth and ninth cervical, and to consider the seven ver- 

 iebrcB craniad of them as constituting the normai set. The trans- 

 verse processes of these vertebrce are longer and narrovver than the 

 preceding ones, and each is terminated by a perfect articular sur- 

 face, vvhich is slightly depressed. To these articular surfaces are 

 attached the heads of the rudimentary ribs. The first of these 

 rudiments is small and slender, about four tenths of an inch in 

 length, having a distinct rounded head at the articular extremity, 

 then becoming abruptly smaller, and tapering to the apex. The 

 second is considerably larger and assumes more of the character of 

 a short rib. It is about 6 lines in length and nearly 2 in breadth. 

 Its head is oblong and rounded ; and there is a tubercle on the 

 upper and anterior side. Towards the extremity it becomes broader 

 and flatter, with an excavated surface invvards, and a convex rough 

 prominence on the outer side, apparently the point of muscular 

 attachment. Immediately behind and beneath the head of the 

 bone is a Tainuiejbramen for the passage of intercostal vessels. 



The character of the transverse processes of the two vertebrce 

 difFers very materially from that of the true cervical. In the supe- 

 rior vertebrce this process is transverse and slightly bifid. In the 

 seventh cervical it stands obliquely forwards, and its apex is broad 

 and oblong. In the first dorsal each transverse process is com- 

 pletely divided into an anterior flattened process which is turned 



