THE SPINAL COLUMN OF QUADRUPEDS. 129 



cesses. In that curious animal, the ornitho- 

 rhynchus of Now HoHandjthc ribs are attached 

 solely to the bodies of the vertebraj. 



The use of the spine is to give firmness to 

 the general frame, yet consistent with ease 

 and grace, and to afford a safe canal for the 

 continuation of the spinal cord from the brain, 

 which, as it passes, distributes through certain 

 openings between the vertebra? nerves to the 

 body and limbs. The mode of union in the 

 mammalia between the separate bones com- 

 posing the vertebral column is such as to 

 endow the whole with considerable flexibility, 

 while, at the same time, that the spinal cord may 

 not be compressed, the individual mobility of 

 each is very limited. It must be observed, then, 

 that ^le bodies of the vertebra; are not in close 

 contact, for, in this case, the column would be 

 rigid, but there is interposed between them 

 a substance of considerable thickness — a soft 

 cartilaginous consistence, and highly elastic, 

 to which the flexibility of the spine is owing. 

 It is, in fact, from the interposition of these 

 elastic cushions between the bodies of the 

 vertebrae, (which are united together by the 

 oblique processes,) that the flexibility of the 

 spine is omng, so that the whole can be bent 



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