92 PROFESSOR STRUTHERS, 



by the rapid falling away of the border inwardly on the neck 

 stage. This angle may be developed into a special projection. 

 The typical anterior border is thus sigmoid. The posterior 

 border, at rather internal to the middle, presents a low projection, 

 sometimes well marked, giving a gently undulating form to the 

 border. These anterior and posterior intertransverse projec- 

 tions mark off the neck stage, and are apparently the points of 

 attachment of ligaments or tendons, or the inward part of such 

 attachments to the more or less expanded wing stage. The 

 ciu^vatures on the upper and under surfaces of the transverse 

 processes depend on the amount of upturning of the processes, 

 and on the amount of thickening at the outer ends to support 

 the articular surfaces for the ribs. Typical lumbar transverse 

 processes have the same form except in regard to what depends 

 on the absence of costal facets and of upturning. 



19. The Transverse Processes of Megaptera — Dorsal 

 Region. — The most striking characters of the dorsal transverse 

 processes in Megaptera are their up-curving outwardly, and 

 their thickness combined with narrowness. 



Place of Origin. — The four first spring from the pedicle, the 

 5th, 6th, and 7th are transition in this respect, the transverse 

 process gradually springing lower from the common stalk. The 

 8th may be considered as quite distinct from the pedicle. Be- 

 hind this, there is more and more separation of the transverse 

 j)rocesses from the pedicles. That this is mainly due to the 

 processes and pedicles becoming thinner, not to the processes 

 coming down on the bodies, is seen on a side view. The roots 

 of the transverse processes are then seen, from the 4th to the 

 ]3th, to be on a curved line, convexity upwards. This is in 

 harmony with the upturning of the processes as an adaptation 

 to the ribs. The root of the 14th is nearly on a level with those 

 of the lumbar, being nearly as low as the middle of the body. 



The transverse processes, whether united with or separate from 

 the pedicles, spring from nearer the anterior than the posterior 

 end of the bodies, from the 1st to the 12th, on which latter the 

 distances are about equal; but on the 13th and 14th, and on the 

 1st lumbar, they spring nearer the posterior than the anterior 

 end. This change does not apply to the pedicles, all of which 

 spring nearer the front than the back of the bodies. 



