722 
PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE MEGATHERIUM. 
example, the first exact describer of Human Osteology, when treating of the lumbar 
vertebrae, observes, — “ 5. Betwixt the roots of the superior oblique and transverse 
processes a small rising may be observed, where some of the ‘ musculi erectores 
trunci corporis’ are fixed*.” And Soemmerring bears testimony to the accuracy of 
Monro’s observation of this ‘ small rising’ as a constant part, by calling it “ processus 
accessorius processui transverso et articulari superiori interpositus'f'.” There are, in 
fact, two such accessory processes, as Soemmerring, indeed, seems to indicate. One 
of these ‘small risings’ or ‘ accessory processes,’ although it seems so insignificant, 
and is so small, as to be commonly passed over without notice in our modern an- 
thropotomical compilations is not only so constant as to merit unfailing notice in 
the human subject; but, in extending our comparisons from Man to the lower mam- 
malia, we find it speedily, in the Quadrumanous Order, for example, gaining a de- 
velopment which makes it, in the dorsal and lumbar regions, more conspicuous than 
the articular processes themselves : whence Cuvier, observing its relation to the 
anterior of these processes, calls it “ une seconde apophyse articulaire § and M. de 
Blainville, struck rather with the shape of the process, calls it “ apophyse styloide|l 
\vhilst M. Straus-Durckheim, regarding it as a sort of accessory transverse process, 
prefers to call it “apophyse plagienne^ I have termed it the ‘ anapoph^sls**.' The 
second tubercle is usually a somewhat larger process, situated between the diapo- 
physis and the upper or anterior zygapophysis ; it is equally constant in certain ver- 
tebrse in Man, and attains in some mammals, the Armadillos for instance, as great a 
length as the spinous process itself. The part in Man to which I allude is that 
which the accurate Bourgery has depicted in his beautiful plates, and indicated 
as the ‘face rugueuse de I’apophyse articulaire superieure'f''|~.’ Straus-Durckheim 
mistakes it for the superior articular process itself, in the feline quadrupeds, calls 
it ‘apophyse antoblique,’ and denies the existence of anterior oblique processes in the 
third to the ninth dorsal vertebra inclusive ; which do, in fact, possess the articulating 
surfaces so called, but want the accessory process which becomes so markedly deve- 
loped in the posterior dorsal and lumbar vertebrae. For this accessory process I 
have proposed the name of ‘ metapophysisW,' and have noticed some of its modifica- 
* The Anatomy of the Humane Bones, 12mo, 1726, p. 202. In later editions he calls it a 'small pro- 
tuberance.’ 
•f Op. cit. tom. i. j). 268. He speaks of two such processes, but whether he meant the pair of metapophyses, 
or both met- and an-apophysis, is uncertain. 
I 1 may instance Bell’s Anatomy, vol. i. ' On the Bones,’ &c., ed. 1826, p. 20, and the Anatomist’s Vade 
Mecum, by Erasmus Wilson, 12mo, 1842. 
§ Lecons d’Anat. Comp., ed. 1835, t. i. p. 197. || Osteographie, ^assm. 
^ From TrXdytos, transversus. Anatomie du Chat, t. i. p. 95. 
** From kv 'a retro, utz6(Pv(tis processus, liecause it generally projects more or less backwards. 
•jH' ’I’raitd Complet de I’Anatomie de I’Homme, fol. t. i. pi. 9. figs. 2 and 4 k. Tliis appears to be indicated, 
in the 5th edition of Quain’s ‘ Anatomy,’ as a tubercle projecting from the superior articulating process. 
H From perd inter, cnroipviris processus, because it is usually between the transverse process (diapophysis) and 
the anterior oblique process (prozygapophysis). 
