182 COMrARlSONS OF STRUCTL-RE IN ANIMALS. 



■svell adapted for sustaining the weight of the 

 sTvItII ; consequently, Avhen the skeleton is 

 clothed with muscles, and these covered with 

 skin, the head appears as immediately resting 

 on or asainst the shoulders. Let us contrast 

 this modification of the vertebraj of the neck 

 with those of the same bones in the girafie. In 

 this quadruped, the neck is extremely long 

 and flexible, and sustains a small elegant head; 

 accordingly, when we come to examine the . 

 skeleton, Ave find the cervical vertebrae ex- 

 tremely elongated, and not only so, for instead 

 of their bodies being flattened and conjoined 

 by the intervention of a cushion of elastic 

 cartilaginous substance, they exhibit a series 

 of ball-and-socket articulations ; the ball which 

 is on the anterior portion, or end of each 

 vertebra, being received into the socket on the 

 posterior portion of the one before it ; and so 

 on in succession from the seventh, or that 

 adjoining the first dorsal vertebra, upwards to 

 the head. This mode of articulation, which 

 reminds us of the spine of a serpent, is evidently 

 intended to give the utmost flexibility to the 

 neck ; and hence it is, that the giraffe wreathes 

 it so gracefully in various directions. How 

 beautifully accordant is tips conformation of 



