ANATOMY OF MEGAPTERA LOXGIMANA. 83 



continuous with that of the lamina, interrupted only where the 

 tubercle above referred to exists. The concavity appears to 

 increase in depth as we go back, owing to the greater projection 

 of the posterior articular process ; but it is less in the caudal 

 region, in which, after the 2nd caudal, the pedicle, lamina, 

 and spine all go upwards and backwards with very little 

 obliquity. The anterior border rises from the fore part of 

 the body close to the epiphysis, and curves very obliquely 

 upwards and forwards, owing to the form of the articlar 

 process. The anterior inferior angle of the process is 3 inches 

 above the body, giving a high intervertebral foramen compared 

 with B. musculus. 



[In B. musculus the posterior border of the pedicle is concave along 

 the whole column. The anterior border in the dorsal region curves 

 abruptly forwards to join the lower border of the quadrate articular 

 process, forming nearly a right angle and giving a low intervertebral 

 foramen. The lower border of the process, forming the upper 

 boundary of the foramen, is about 2 inches above the level of the 

 body.] 



The pedicle is set upon the body quite close to the anterior 

 epiphysis all along the column, but at some distance from the 

 posterior epiphysis, at the 8th dorsal, 1 inch from it ; at the 

 10th lumbar, If inch. Hence the intervertebral foramen 

 belongs more to the anterior than to the posterior vertebra, 

 although the articular process makes the latter encircle the 

 foramen most. 



[In B. musculus the pedicle does not arise so near the front of the 

 body as in Megaptera. At the 8th dorsal it is f inch from the 

 anterior epiphysis, 1^ from the posterior epiphysis; at 10th lumbar, 

 the same; at 15th lumbar, | inch from the anterior epiphysis, 1| 

 from the posterior,, but curves very rapidly back at its anterior 

 origin.] 



N euro-Central Suture. Traces of the closed neuro-central 

 suture are present from the 9th lumbar forwards to the 8th 

 dorsal. They are seen and felt as continuous raised lines, along 

 the outside, at about an inch below where the pedicle appears 

 to spring from the body. In front of the pedicle the line would 

 cut off but a small part of the body as belonging to the neural 

 arch. The line is still above the transverse process on the 8th 



