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1SS4 . 1 The Significance of Human Anomalies. 
the lower animals, and in them the bone, which is a very 
impoitant one, is called the epihyal bone. 
2. At the base of the skull on the left side, behind the 
mastoid piocess, the prominent nipple-shaped process behind 
e eai, is a stout, bony spur, more than three-quarters of an 
inch long, which has a downward direction, and articulates 
with the first bone of the vertebral column. This process 
is rarely seen in the human being, and is the only one I have 
met with, but it is quite the normal condition in most 
giaminivorous and carnivorous animals, being especially 
well marked in the horse, pig, sheep, and goat. In them it 
1S an important part, and gives attachment to strong muscles 
w lich move the head on the trunk. It is called the para- 
mastoid process, from its proximity to the mastoid. 
Supeynumevayy Ribs. — I suppose everyone is aware that 
the vertebral column, or backbone, is composed of many 
separate bones, some of which carry ribs. The backbone is 
made up of thirty-three bones, — seven in the neck, twelve 
in the trunk, five in the loins ; below this we have a bone 
called the sacrum, which consists of five vertebrae fused 
together ; and lower down still four small bones which repre- 
sent the tail-bones, called, when taken together, the coccyx, 
from their supposed resemblance to a cuckoo’s beak. Now 
each trunk, or dorsal vertebra, has two ribs connected with 
it, one on each side ; so there are altogether twenty-four 
ribs, twelve on each side ; but sometimes there are more, 
and, when this occurs, the extra ribs are carried by the neck 
(cervical) or loin (lumbar) vertebrae. I have specimens in 
my collection of both varieties, cervical and lumbar. These 
supernumerary ribs do not occur very frequently; still every 
anatomist has observed them. Their occurrence becomes 
more intelligible when we know that in crocodiles, birds, 
and the three-toed sloth, neck or cervical ribs exist normally ; 
that in crocodiles, alligators, and some other animals, loin 
or lumbar ribs are never absent ; and that in man traces of 
them exist in the muscles of the abdomen. In the human 
embryo, in an early stage, a rib is always seen connected 
with the seventh neck-vertebra, but before the fifth year of 
life it becomes blended with the ordinary transverse process ; 
occasionally, however, this rudiment goes on developing, 'till 
it becomes a more or less perfect cervical rib. 
Supya-condyloid Pyocess. — It is not uncommon to find, in 
the humerus or arm-bone of a man, a hooklike process on 
the inner side of the lower end, having a downward direction : 
