OF CREATION. 167 



the vertebrse thus constructed were attached not only 

 true ribs, but a continued series of them along the 

 whole length of the body, enclosing the great cavities 

 of the heart, abdomen, &c., with a perfect vaulting 

 of elastic bone. Across the chest these ribs are con- 

 nected by intermediate bones, each set consisting of 

 five, overlapping each other as in the Plesiosaur, 

 and doubtless performing a similar office.* But in 

 the Ichthyosaurus the breast-bone to which these 

 ribs were attached presents some peculiarities ex- 

 ceedingly remarkable and characteristic. 



In the whale tribe the breast-bone is developed 

 so as to enclose the complicated apparatus of lung 

 necessary for air-breathing warm-blooded animals, 

 having a complete circulation ; but in the true ma- 

 rine reptiles this is by no means the case, and we 

 find that, although this apparatus of the breast-bone 

 is present, it is so in order that it may form a support 

 and a point of resistance to the fore-paddles of the 

 animal. 



In this respect again there is another curious 

 analogy between the Ichthyosaur and the Duck- 

 billed Platypus or Ornithorhynchm of Australia, 

 one of the most anomalous of living animals, which 

 seems to require the same kind of contrivance, and 

 possesses it in a nearly similar manner. ( 



* Nineteen pairs of ribs have been found thus connected in one speci- 

 men of Ichthyosaurus from Lyme Regis. 



t The bones which correspond to the shoulder bone are articulated to 

 a short and stout scapula (shoulder blade) like that of birds ; the fore 

 part of this is fixed both to the clavicle (or collar-bone), and to the bone 

 corresponding with the breast bone, while the other receives the extremity 

 of the humerus (shoulder bone) , and is also attached to another bone pro- 

 ceeding from the blade-bone, and in man merely forming a projecting sur- 



