Kneeland on the Skeleton of the Great Chimpanzée. 339 
three and one eighth inches ; the seventh, three and one fourth 
inches. The use of these long spinous processes is sufficiently 
obvious, being required for the attachment of the ligamen- 
tum nuche, which must be very strong in these creatures; 
from the posterior situation of the occipital foramen, the head 
must have a great tendency to fall forward, and its immense 
Weight requires a corresponding strength in this ligament. 
The transverse processes are very long, the posterior an inch 
in length ; the anterior, or cervical ribs, begin to be seen at 
the fourth, increasing to the sixth and seventh, which last are 
of equal size ; there being, as a general rule, no cervical ribs to 
the seventh vertebra of the mammal neck. All the cervical 
vertebrae are pierced for the vertebral artery on each side ; 
the transverse processes are directed obliquely downwards. 
The dorsal vertebrae are fourteen in number, (as in the 
Chimpanzée, according to Cuvier); they much resemble the 
human in shape and size; the last two are rather larger, and 
more like the human lumbar vertebra ; the spinous and trans- 
verse processes are much more developed ; the spinous pro- 
cess of the first is like the cervical, and two and seven eighths 
inches long; the spinal canal is less in this and the remainder 
of the column; the spinous processes of the second and third 
dorsals are compressed laterally at the end, and are two and 
a half inches long. At the fourth, the spinous processes 
begin to descend, as in man, to the ninth ; below this they d 
semble the lumbar spines, though pointing more downwards. 
The last dorsal has its rib on the right side firmly anchylosed 
to the body. : 
The lumbar vertebrze are onl y three in number, fewer than - 
any of the higher Mammals; the bodies are larger and thicker 
than in man; the vertical diameter is less anteriorly than 
posteriorly, making this region concave anteriorly , and show- 
Ing that the erect position is as unnatural for it as for the 
other Quadrumana. Possibly one of the lumbar vertebrae may 
be missing ; though from the manner in which they fit into each 
other, and into the last dorsal and first sacral, it seems hardly 
