208 REINHARDT ON 



sense. If we continue, then, to use this tenninologj', we shall find that the posterior 

 articular processes have already disappeared in the sixth dorsal of the Refsnæs dolphin, and in 

 the seventh dorsal of the Middelfart individual, whereas the anterior ones do not entirely 

 disappear until quite posteriorly in the caudal vertebrae. But whereas these anterior articular 

 processes in the different genera of dolphins still continue to clasp round the root of the pre. 

 ceding spinous process, in a shorter or longer portion of the dorsal and lumbar region, even after 

 the articular surfaces have disappeared, and though they have advanced upwards themselves on 

 the vertebral arch to the roots of the spinous processes, there is not one amongst them in our 

 dolphin that reaches quite to the spinous process preceding it. This, we suppose, is partly 

 owing to their not being particularly large themselves, but also to the considerable length of the 

 vertebral bodies by which the intervals between the spinous processes are rendered uncommonly 

 large. I know no other dolphin besides this where such is the case ; in the nearly related species 

 of the killers we still find some eight or nine vertebræ, the spines of which are thus clasped from 

 behind by the articular processes of the succeeding vertebra, and even in the ca'ing-whales, though, 

 perhaps, in this respect more similar to the one here treated of than any other dolphin, 

 we always find some of the spinous processes of the posterior dorsal vertebræ enclasped in 

 this manner. 



Ten pairs of ribs, which I have previously thought right to consider as the normal number 

 in our crasside7is, is a smaller number than is found in any other dolphin ; even the kindred 

 species of the killers and the ca'ing-whales have eleven or twelve pairs, and according to Cuvier, 

 the last number is also found in Delphinus grisens. Of these ten pairs, the five foremost are tme 

 ribs ; the six foremost attach themselves to the vertebral bodies, as well as to the transverse 

 processes ; the four posterior pair, on the contrary, are only affixed to the latter, and thus 

 have neither neck or head. In the skeleton of the male stranded at Middelfart, however, we 

 find, as it were, a trace indicating that the seventh pair of ribs was also intended to have 

 fastened itself both to the vertebral body and the transverse process. For though in this pair 

 of ribs there is not the slightest trace of any neck in the ribs themselves, yet the anterior margin 

 of the transverse process of the seventh dorsal sends out a cylindrical process, pointing obliquely 

 forwards and inwards towards the hindmost part of the body of the sixth dorsal, where again we 

 find a projecting knob analogous to the similar one of the preceding vertebra to which the head 

 of the sixth rib is attached. It is, however, only in the right side of the skeleton, that this inter- 

 esting peculiarity is seen exactly as I have described it ; for this little process that strives 

 to form a bridge in an oblique direction from the transverse process of the seventh dorsal to the 

 body of the sixth, is in the left side somewhat more slender than in the right side, nor has it on 

 this side preserved its connection with the transverse process, but is, on the contrary, ankylosed 

 with the body of the last-mentioned vertebra. In both cases, however, it cannot be doubted 

 for an instant, but that it really is some trace, or rudiment of a costal neck, intended for the 

 seventh pair of ribs, that we have before us, though having become entirely separated from 

 the rib, and ankylosed with the vertebra, with which it was to have been attached. We 

 sometimes find the same peculiarity in the seventh dorsal of the ca'ing whale, nor should we 

 wonder if this similarity were considered as indicating some very close relationship between our 

 dolphin and the latter species. Now, I shall not deny that some similarity may really be found 

 to exist between them in this respect, as far as I have hitherto only found this peculiarity in 

 these two species ; but the importance we naay ascribe to this similarity, is, at any rate, very 



