ON THE VERTEBRATE SKELETON. 331 



be added to the ' cervical,' ' thoracic or dorsal,' ' lumbar,' ' sacral,' and ' coccy- 

 geal or caudal.' 



Such, with reference to the ' general ' term ' vertebra,' seems to be the 

 advance of which anthropotomical science is susceptible, in order to keep 

 progress and be in harmony with anatomy. 



As to the elements of the typical vertebra, anthropotomy has also its gene- 

 ral phrases (see Table II. column vi. ' Soemmering.'), some of which are 

 equivalent to the clearly defined technical terms of such elements in anatomy 

 properly so called. 



The serial homology of the centrum (corpus vertebrce) has been recognised 

 in all the so-called ' true vertebrae,' and in some of the ' false vertebra? : ' thus 

 Monro says, " The fore-part of the os sacrum, analogous to the bodies of the 

 true vertebrae, is smooth and flat*." But their smooth and flat homotypes in 

 the skull have only the special names of 'basilar' and 'cuneiform' processes ; of 

 ' processus azygos ' and ' vomer.' The ' neurapophyses ' are recognised as re- 

 petitions of the same part under the definitions of ' a bony bridge produced 

 backwards from each side of the body of the vertebra,' of ' circus posterior 

 vertebrae] of ' vertebral laminae ' or ' pedicles.' Monro describes these rudi- 

 mental elements in the last sacral vertebra as ' knobs,' and in the first coccy- 

 geal vertebra as its ' shoulders.' In the skull they receive the special defini- 

 tions of " the pieces of the occipital bone situated on each side of the great 

 foramen; from which nearly the whole condyles are producedf " (partes late- 

 rales seu condyloidece, Soem.) ; ' great ' or ' temporal wings of the sphenoidal 

 bone \ ; ' ' orbitar wings ' or ' processes of the sphenoidal bone ; ' ' nasal ' or 

 ' vertical plate' and ' cristi galli' of the ethmoid ('pars media ossis cethmoidei,' 

 Soem.). 



The neural spines are called generally ' spinal processes' in every segment 

 of the trunk: in the head they are known only by the special names of 'oc- 

 cipital plate, ' ' parietal bones,' ' frontal bone,' ' nasal bones.' 



The pleurapophyses, when free, long, and slender, are called ' ribs,' 'verte- 

 bral ribs,' or 'bony parts of the ribs'; when short and anchylosed, they are 

 called, in the neck, " the second transverse processes that come out from the 

 sides of the body of each vertebra § ;" (radix prior processus transtiersi ver- 

 tebrce, Soem. ;) in the sacrum ' transverse processes ' and ' ilium'; in the skull, 

 ' scapula', ' styloid process of the temporal bone,' ' external auditory or tym- 

 panic process of the same bone'; 'palatine bone/ 



In like manner the serial homology of the haemapophyses is recognised in 

 the thoracic region by the general term ' cartilages of the ribs' or ' cartilages 

 of the sternum' there applied to the same elements of twelve successive seg- 

 ments. When ossified in other vertebrae they have received the special names 

 of ' ischium,' ' pubis,' ' coracoid process of the scapula,' 'clavicle,' ' appendix 

 or lesser cornua of the hyoid bone,' (' crura superiora,' ' os Iwguale superius, > 

 Soem.), ' lower jaw' or mandibula, ' upper jaw' or maxilla. 



The exigences of descriptive anthropotomy and its highly important ap- 

 plications to Medicine and Surgery necessitate such special nomenclature, and 

 the reform which that nomenclature chiefly requires is the substitution of 

 names in the place of phrases for the parts of the human body. 



But the retention and use of specific names for specially modified elements 

 in the different segments by no means precludes the entertainment of general 

 ideas and the necessity of expressing them by generic names for the homo- 

 logous elements in the entire series of vertebrae. 



If anthropotomy is to make corresponding progress with anatomy, and 

 to derive the same light from the generalizations of zootomical science which 

 * Monro, I. c. p. 138. f L. c. p. 76. % L. c. p. 86. § L. c. p. 126. 



z2 



