The Contemporary Kralu 



the elaboration of the spines of the cervical vertebrae, the 



of the lumbar vertebrae and shifting ol the pelvis upward, 

 whereby a lumbar vertebra is added to the sacrum and sub- 

 tracted from the dorso-lumbar series. 



Cunningham 1 has found that the division of the neural 

 spines in the upper cervical vertebra' distinguishes tin- higher 

 races from the lower. The spine of the axis is always bind. 

 but the spines of the cervieals three, four and five are also, as 

 a rule, bifid in the European, while they are single m the 

 lower races. The same author shows 2 that the bodies of the 

 lumbar vertebrae are altering, by widening and shortening, to 

 form a firmer pillar of support, with a compensating increase 

 in the length of the intervertebral cartilages. In the child 

 tin vertebrae present more nearly their primitive elongate 

 compressed form. With this is associated an increase, of the 

 forward lumbar curvature (Turner); 3 the primitive (i. e Mili- 

 um) curve was backward; even in the negroes the collective 

 measurement of the posterior faces of the five lumbars is 

 greater than the anterior, in the proportion of 10*1 to 100: 

 whereas in the white the collective anterior faces exceed the 

 posterior in nearly the same proportion— 100 to 96. 



The lower region of the back is also the seat of one of the 

 most interesting and important of the changes in the body, 

 namely, the correlated evolution of the inferior ribs, the Jum- 

 ber vertebrae and the pelvis-to which embryology, adult and 

 comparative anatomy and reversion all contribute their quota 

 of proof. In most of the anthropoid apes, and therefore pre- 



^bid., 1886, p. 636. 



journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 1890, p. 117. 



