110 



conjecture that its insect-prey is large ; probably nocturnal beetles 

 and the larger moths and sphinges. 



Juiy 13, 1847. 

 William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 The following papers ■vrere read : — 



1. Observations on the distinction between the Cervical and 

 DoRSAL Vertebe^ IN THE Class Mammalia. By H. N. Turner, 



JUN. 



Doubtless it will be remembered that in many Mammalia the lašt 

 cervical vertebra has a transverse process of simple form, wantingthe 

 perforation for the passage of the vertebral artery, so characteristic 

 of the reraaining vertebrse in this region of the spine, and ■which, 

 together with the absence of articulated ribs, has been considered as 

 the definite character by which such a vertebra may be distinguished. 

 However, it is now well known that the existence of this foramen in 

 the transverse process of the seventh cervical vertebra is rather the 

 exception than the rule among the mammalian class, since it is 

 wanting in most of the lovver Quadrumana, as the Cebi and Lemurs*, 

 in nearly all the Carnivora and the Rodentia (except the Hares), in 

 the Ruminantia, and several of the Pachydermata and Edentata ; but 

 as its presence or absence has but little importance either in a zoo- 

 logical or physiological point of view, it is needless to enter minutely 

 into that ąuestion. 



It is perhaps scarcely necessary to add, that in the six upper cer- 

 vicals this foramen is formed by the existence of t\vo exogenous 

 processe.*, the diapophysis and parapophj-sis, and the junction of their 

 extremities through the intervention of a small autogenous element, 

 a pleurapophj'sis or vertebral rib, which becomes anchylosed to them, 

 in the warm-blooded animals, at an early period of existence. One 

 of the cervical vertebrae of a whale, described by Mr. Gray in a paper 

 recently read, afFords a very interesting example of the existence of 



* As some of the exceptions to this generalizatiou possess some interest, it is 

 perhaps as well to notice them. We need not descend lower than the Chimpanzee 

 to witness the disappearance of the foramen, as in this animal its esistence is only 

 indicated by a minute process thrown out from the transverse process, and another 

 frora the body of the vertebra, but they do not meet ; this would render it most 

 probable that the stylet enclosing the foramen beneath is exogenoiis. In the ske- 

 leton of a ha]f-grown Cynocephalus leucophteus in my ovm coUection, the foramen 

 is wanting on one side ; on the other it is very small, and the stylet enclosing it 

 shows no trace of separation from the other parts. But the most remarkable 

 pecutiarity is that occurring in the Orang-Utan, -nhose neck is short, and usually 

 hangs forward. In the skeleton of this species presented by Sir Stamford Raffles 

 to the College of Surgeons, not only does the transverse process of the seventh 

 cervical vertebra show no foramen, but even that of the sixth has it very small on 

 one side and quite obliterated on the other. On the other hand, in the Inrlri 

 brevicaudatus, a rather long-necked Lemur, the foramen is very distinct in the 

 seventh. 



