48 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [Vol. IX. 



vertebrae; the whole body of man decays except that vertebra and it 

 resembles an almond." The identification of the bone with the coccyx 

 naturally resulted from this definition, and this has been the usually 

 accepted identification and is that given in the recently published Jewish 

 Encyclopaedia, in which the luz is said to be "the Aramaic name for the 

 OS coccyx, the 'nut' of the spinal column." It may be added that the 

 references to the almond in the Baal Aruch and to the nut in the Ency- 

 clopaedia are due to the fact that the word luz was also the Aramaic term 

 for the almond.* 



Other identifications have, however, been proposed. Thus Bauhin 

 states that according to Munsterusf the rabbinical writers located the 

 bone in the neck, that by others it was identified wth the seventh cervical 

 vertebra and that according to Hieronymus Magius others placed it near 

 or even in the base of the skull. Hyrtl adds that according to Kiihn 

 it was identified with the triangular bone occasionally occurring at the 

 junction of the sagittal and lambdoidi sutures and now generally known 

 as the OS Incae. Vesalius, also, suggested its identity with the medial 

 sesamoid of the great toe, his words being as follows: "Quinetiam in pede 

 (quern homo quadrupedibus multe breviorem obtinet) totidem ac in manu 

 exigua occurrcnt ossicula, quae sesami semini comparamus; quanquam 

 primo pollicis internodio hie duo longe grandiora quam in manu subjici- 

 antur, harumque interius illud sit, quod occultae philosophiae sectatores 

 corruptioni neutiquam obnoxium esse affirmant, et tantisper in terra 

 asservandum nugaciter contendunt, dum id resurrectionis tempore seminis 

 nodo hominem producat."J The same suggestion is made somewhat more 

 positively in the De Fabrica. " Num tamen Arabes, et vero occulti illi 

 tenebricosique philosophi, ex hoc ossiculo, ipsis Albadaran nuncupato, 

 hominem rursus propagandum recte sentiant. Theologis disceptandum 

 relinquo, qui liberam sibi de resurrectione, animarumque immortalitate ac 

 eventu, disputationem et sententiam vendicant." || 



These identifications all belong to periods later than the original 

 rabbinical writings and, as I have already indicated, it seems very prob- 

 able that the earlier Hebrew teachers made it no concern of theirs to inquire 

 into the exact position of the bone. Their Scriptures seemed to require 



*Gesenius. Hebraisches und Aramaisches Handworterbuch iiber das alte Testa- 

 ment. Ed. XI. Leipzig, 1890. 



*I/evy. Neuhebraisches und Chaldaisches Worterbuch. Bd. II. 1879. 



tSebastian Miinster. 1489-1552. 



JVesalius. Epitome anatomica. I quote from the Paaw edition, 1633. 



II Vesalius. De fabrica corporis humani. I quote from the Boerhaave edition 

 of 1725- 



