No. 521] 



SAUROPOD DINOSAURS 



ischial peduncle. It may be said in passing that l>r. 

 Tornier takes very great liberties with the outlines of the 

 bones. His drawing is very far from accurate. Un- 

 fortunately actual experiment shows, first, that it is im- 

 possible except by smashing the ilium or breaking the 

 femur to jam the head of the latter into the position 

 demanded for it by the learned professor; but, second, 

 this is the only time, it is believed, in the history of 

 anatomical science that any one has discovered that the 

 great trochanter of the femur ought to be and is by 

 nature intended to be articulated with the ischial pe- 

 duncle of the ilium, thus locking the femur into a posi- 

 tion utterly precluding all motion whatsoever. 



The next step taken by this wonder-working com- 

 parative anatomist was to dislocate the knee-joint. This 

 he proceeds to do in a most nonchalant manner, and 

 leaves the articulating end of the femur peering forth 

 into space (see Fig. 2, g), while the tibia and the fibula 

 are made to articulate with the posterior edges of the 

 interior and exterior condyles of the femur. Having 

 adopted this change, he succeeds in so lowering the hind 

 quarters of the Diplodocus that they must rest upon the 

 anterior extremity of the pubic bones, which, with the 

 fragile ends of the ribs, not much greater in size than 

 those of an ox, have thrown upon them the entire weight 

 of the carcass. To obviate the inconveniences of this 

 pose the lead pencil is again brought into requisition 

 and the anterior vertebrae are hoisted into the air and 

 propped up upon the scapulae, the dorsal ends of which 

 have been glued by a hypothetical suprascapula to the 

 lateral processes of the last cervical vertebrae (see Fig. 

 3). This transference of the scapula to the Tornerian 

 position is done in order to give, as the author says, an 

 opportunity to so place the scapula that horizontal mo- 

 tion backward and forward may be allowed to the hu- 

 merus, which he takes pains to inform us is strikingly 

 like that of a Varanus. Upon the latter point it is quite 

 possible to differ from the learned critic. 



The anterior portion of the trunk having been thus 



