84 SKELETON. 



Of the Dorsal Vertebra. 



General or Common Characters. The dorsal vertebrae, 

 amounting to twelve, being intermediate in position to those of 

 the neck and loins, are also intermediate in size. They diminish 

 in the transverse diameter of their bodies from the first to the 

 third: afterwards, they increase regularly in size to the last. 



Their bodies are more cylindroid than those of the neck, and 

 the most of them are marked laterally on the upper, and also on 

 the lower margins, near the base of the processes, with a small 

 articular face, which receives one-half of the head of a rib. The 

 adjoining fossa of the contiguous vertebra, receives the other 

 half of the head of the same rib. The superior of these articu- 

 lar faces is larger than the inferior. The superior oblique pro- 

 cesses are flat, and present almost backwards; the inferior are 

 also flat and present as directly forwards. The transverse pro- 

 cesses are directed obliquely backwards: they are long, termi- 

 nate in an enlarged extremity, which presents an articular face 

 in front for the tubercle of the contiguous rib. The transverse 

 processes as they descend are directed more backwards, and di- 

 minish in length. The spinal processes are long, triangular, with 

 a broad base, and an extremity somewhat rough, swollen, and 

 sharp-pointed, except in the upper and lower vertebrae: they 

 have a ridge above and a fossa below; are directed obliquely 

 downwards, and overlap each other. 



The spinal foramen is small and round. The notch for the 

 inter-vertebral foramen is formed principally by the vertebra 

 above. 



Of the Dorsal Vertebra individually. 



These vertebrae, though they have many common points of 

 resemblance, yet some of them present distinguishing peculiari- 

 ties. Of these, the first and the two or three last, are the most 

 remarkable. 



The first has a complete articular face on the side of its body 

 for the head of the first rib, and a partial surface at its lower 

 margin for the head of the second rib. Its spinous process is 

 projecting and not so oblique as some of the others: the flat- 

 ness of its body makes it look much like a cervical vertebra. 



