164 SKELETON OF THE PIG 
verse process is lumbar in character, plate-like, and about an inch (2 cm.) long. 
Small accessory processes occur in the posterior part of the region. The first 
spinous process is broad, very high, and inclined a little forward. The others di- 
minish very gradually in length to the tenth, beyond which they are about equal. 
The second to the ninth are inclined backward, the tenth is vertical (anticlinal), and 
the rest incline forward. The width decreases decidedly from the fourth to the 
tenth, beyond which there is a gradual increase. The summits are slightly enlarged 
and lie almost in a straight line. 
The lumbar vertebre are six or seven in number. The bodies are longer than 
in the thoracie region and bear a ventral crest. They become wider and flatter 
in the posterior part of the series. The arches are deeply notched, and are separated 
by an increasing space dorsally. The mammillary processes project outward and 
backward. The transverse processes are bent downward and incline a little for- 
ward. Their length increases to the fifth and is much diminished in the last. They 
form no articulation with each other or with the sacrum. The posterior edge of the 
root of the process is marked by a notch in the anterior part of the series, a fora- 
1, Body; 2, transverse process; 3, anterior articular process; 4, mammillary process; 5, posterior articular process; 
6, spinous process. 
men in the posterior part. The spines are broad and incline forward, with the ex- 
ception of the last, which is narrow and vertical. 
Lesbre states that six and seven lumbar vertebre occur with almost equal frequency. The 
number may be reduced to five, and the number of presacral vertebre varies from twenty-six to 
twenty-nine. 
The sacrum consists usually of four vertebrae, which fuse later and less com- 
pletely than in the other domesticated animals. It is less curved than in the ox. 
The spines are little developed and commonly in part absent. The middle of the 
dorsal surface is flattened and smooth, and presents openings into the sacral canal 
between adjacent arches (Spatia interarcualia). On either side are the dorsal 
sacral foramina, and tubercles which indicate the fused articular processes. The 
wings resemble those of the ox. The anterior articular processes are very large. 
The pelvic surface resembles that of the ox, but is not so strongly curved, and the 
transverse lines are very distinct. 
The coccygeal vertebra are specially characterized by the presence of func- 
tional articular processes on the first four or five, beyond which these processes 
become non-articular and smaller. The arches of the first five or six are complete. 
The transverse processes are broad and plate-like in the anterior part of the series 
