102 ANATOMY OP VERTEBRATES. 



seen, are of two kinds, as regards the bones of the neuroskeleton : 

 the one kind is 'general,' indicative of the relation of the skull- 

 bones to the typical segment, and which names they bear in 

 common with the same elements in the segments of the trunk ; 

 the other kind is ' special,' and bestowed on account of the par- 

 ticular developement and shape of such elements, as they are 

 modified in the head for particular functions. A great proportion 

 of the bones in the head of a fish exist in a very similar state of 

 connection and arrangement in the heads of other vertebrates, up 

 to and including man himself. No method could be less con- 

 ducive to a true and philosophical comprehension of the vertebrate 

 skeleton than the beginning its study in man — the most modified 

 of all vertebrate forms, and that which recedes furthest from the 

 common pattern. Through an inevitable ignorance of that pattern, 

 the bones in Anthropotomy are indicated only by special names 

 more or less relating to the particular forms these bones happen 

 to bear in man ; such names, when applied to the tallying bones 

 in lower animals, losing that significance, and becoming arbitrary 

 signs. Owing to the frequent modification by confluence of the 

 human bones, collections of them, so united, have received a 

 single name, as, e. g. ' occipital,' * temporal,' &c. ; whilst their 

 constituents, which are usually distinct vertebral elements, have 

 received no names, or are defined as processes, e. g. ' condyloid 

 process of the occipital bone,' ' styloid process of the temporal 

 bone,' ' petrous portion of the temporal bone,' &c. The classifi- 

 cation, moreover, of the bones of the head in Human Anatomy, 

 viz. into those of the cranium and those of the face, is artificial or 

 special, and consequently defective. Many bones which essentially 

 belong to the skull are wholly omitted in such classification. 



In regard to the archetype skeleton, fishes, which were the first 

 forms of vertebrate life introduced into this planet, deviate the 

 least therefrom ; and according to the foregoing analysis of the 

 bones of the head, it follows that such bones are primarily divisible 

 into those of — 



The Neuroskeleton ; 

 The Splanclmoskeleton ; 

 The Dermoskeleton. 



The neuroskeletal bones are arranged in four segments, called 



The Occipital vertebra; 

 The Parietal vertebra; 

 The Frontal vertebra ; 

 The Nasal vertebra. 



