ON THE GREENLAND RIGHT- WHALE. 121 



lumbar region, so that in the thirteen vertebræ belonging to this part, they gradually grow 

 from seven to ten inches in length, from eight inches and three quarters to eleven inches and a 

 half in height, and from ten inches and a half to twelve inches in breadth. Exactly the reverse 

 is the case with the vertebral arches. They continually become narrower and lower, 

 and the canal for the spinal cord, which in the eleventh dorsal vertebra is still six inches broad 

 and four inches and a half high, and in the thirteenth five inches and three quarters broad and 

 four inches and a quarter high, is in the anterior part of the lumbar region diminished to 

 a breadth of five inches and a half, and a height of four inches, after which it gradually 

 decreases to a breadth of three inches and a half, and a height of two inches and three 

 quarters. 



While the bodies of the vertebræ in the lumbar region are continually increasing, and their 

 arches at the same time decreasing in size progressively backwards, the case of the processes is 

 quite different, as in the foremost part of this region they become very much larger, and in the 

 hindmost part, on the contrary, their size is diminished in a still greater degree. 



The spinous processes resemble those of the hindmost dorsal vertebræ, and like these they 

 have anteriorly a concave, posteriorly a sigmoid margin, and while they are a little more inclined 

 backwards, they are at the same time considerably higher. A vertical line, supposed to be drawn 

 from their uppermost margin down towards the vertebral bodies, would in the anterior part of 

 this region meet the succeeding vertebral body close in front of its posterior end, and would have 

 a length in the first lumbar vertebra of fifteen inches and three quarters, in the fourth of 

 seventeen inches and a half, and in the sixth of sixteen inches and a half ; but in the five or six 

 posterior lumbar vertebræ such a line would meet the succeeding vertebral body no farther 

 backwards, than somewhat in front of its middle, and would have a length of only thirteen inches 

 in the tenth lumbar vertebra, and of ten inches and a half in the thirteenth. 



The transverse processes also may in the anterior part of the lumbar region be said t& 

 resemble those of the two posterior dorsal vertebræ ; like these, they have the form of long, flat, 

 narrow, transversely placed osseous plates, are narrower at the root, broader externally, inclined 

 very slightly in a downward direction, generally speaking pointing directly outwards, some of 

 them, however, a little forwards, a few others a very httle backwards, following no certain rule in 

 this respect. But in the posterior half of the lumbar region these processes in particular have 

 rather a diS'erent appearance, becoming not only shorter, but at the same time broader in proportion 

 to their length, pointing also very decidedly in a forward direction. The different lengths (in the 

 transverse direction of the body) of these processes has an extraordinary influence on the breadth 

 of the lumbar vertebræ in general. The vertebral bodies themselves are not much broader in 

 the lumbar than in the dorsal region, and their breadth, as we have already stated, uniformly 

 increases from before backwards ; but in their whole extent, the transverse processes included,, 

 the vertebræ are very much broader in the anterior half of the lumbar region than in the 

 hinder part. The first lumbar vertebra, measured in this manner, is already considerably 

 broader than the two most posterior dorsal vertebræ, these being already themselves much 

 broader than the preceding ones. For it is forty inches broad (the most posterior dorsal 

 vertebra thirty-nine inches, the middle ones not more than twenty-seven inches), the third lumbar 

 vertebra forty-four inches, the fourth forty-four inches and a half, but the sixth only forty-two 

 inches, after which the breadth of the eighth and tenth is diminished to thirty-five inches, and that 

 of the thirteenth to twenty-seven inches. 



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