Vertebra and Annellus. 65 



developed, and the resemblance to the spinal and trans- 

 verse processes of the vertebrae in the same animal is so 

 marked, as to make it as difficult to doubt that the 

 spine of a vegetable is an aborted branch or other 

 organ, or the ridge of the sternum and the spinal pro- 

 cesses of the vertebrae in the bird the rudimentary 

 analogues of the limb developed in those regions in 

 the fish, as to doubt that the processes in question 

 are other than limbs, or limb-like organs of some sort, 

 potentially. 



Of the several means of connection between con- 

 tiguous vertebrae it may thus be argued that four are 

 connected with limbs, or organs of some sort ; and 

 therefore, it becomes a question whether the .last and 

 most important means of connection, the ' body,' is not 

 in like manner connected with limbs or limb-like organs. 

 And certainly there is nothing intrinsically unreasonable 

 on the face of such a notion. Such a connection is pos- 

 sible because there yet remain two important pro- 

 cesses of the vertebrse to be accounted for, namely, the 

 transverse processes. Such a connection is probable 

 because these transverse processes are in reality more 

 directly connected with the ' bodies ' of the vertebrae 

 than the other processes, and because there is good reason 

 to believe that they are specially related to the limbs, 

 by being, as it were, abutments of the arches, scapular, 

 costal, and pelvic, which carry the limbs. And thus, by 

 connecting the body of the vertebra with the lateral limbs, 

 additional ground is found for the belief in the double- 

 nature of the body, while at the same time the notion 

 itself becomes more definite, for, looked at in this light, 

 the body is seen to be formed by the coalescence of arti- 

 cular surfaces in connection with the transverse pro- 

 cesses and lateral limbs, which surfaces are analogous 



F 



