182 Prof. Eschricht on the Gangetic Dolphin. 



even though imperforate ; which is evident by its origin and 

 position, as well as the exactly corresponding broad and large 

 transverse process of the epistropheus in the whalebone-whales, 

 having sometimes a very large, at others a very small fora- 

 men, indicating that the plexus of blood-vessels in the rings 

 of the neck anteriorly, is sometimes greatly confined, at others 

 not. The smallness of the foramen in the transverse process 

 of the third vertebra in the Gangetic dolphin proves, that the 

 plexus must be exceedingly confined anteriorly, or rather, that 

 it escapes entirely from the annular sheath. The very strong 

 transverse processes in the atlas are, contrary to what is the case 

 in the axis, manifestly only proper or superior transverse pro- 

 cesses. The marked curvature backwards of the transverse pro- 

 cesses of the second vertebra, points to their use in the whalebone- 

 whales ; they serve for the insertion of a ligament for the first 

 pair of ribs. The upper transverse processes of the fourth, fifth 

 and seventh vertebrae are (as usual in mammalia and in man) 

 cleft at the apex into two knobs, the inner more projecting, par- 

 ticularly in the seventh vertebra (PI. VII. fig. 3 x). The arched 

 parts of the vertebrae are widened transversely, especially in 

 the sixth, which is particularly seen from the back, as compared 

 with the narrow arches of the thoracic vertebrae (PI. VII. fig. 3). 

 From this view the second vertebra is strongly marked by its 

 very broad and flat spinous process pointing backwards and 

 upwards, and being elongated anteriorly, along the median line, 

 in the form of a crest, projecting above the anterior margin. 

 The other cervical vertebrae, on the contrary, have only a very 

 slight crest in the middle, in place of the spinous process ; their 

 arched parts are generally very narrow, and their interstices pro- 

 portionally large. Outwardly the dorsal part of each arch, as it 

 passes into the ventral part and the body itself of the vertebra, is 

 so much bent forward, that these parts get on a level with the dorsal 

 part, not of the same, but of the vertebra next before. From the 

 same curvature rise the two flat, rounded articular processes, the 

 hindermost having the articulating surface pointing downwards 

 and outwards behind the said curvature ; the anterior upwards 

 and inwards before the curvature (PI. V. fig. 2, and PI. VII. 

 fig. 3, where the anterior articular process of the third vertebra 

 is marked a; the corresponding posterior of the second, p). It 

 is immediately under the anterior articular processes, exactly at 

 the boundary between the dorsal and central portions, that the 

 upper transverse processes, alluded to already, originate; they 

 belong therefore entirely to the arched parts, while the lower be- 

 long to the body itself. The broad bases of the transverse pro- 

 cesses in the second and third vertebrae belong therefore, according 

 to what has been explained, both to the arched part and the body 

 of those vertebrae. 



