Then I saw at once how it was; this missile, (in the heat of passion, being mistaken for an empty one, probably,) had been hurled by some treacherous hand upon the unsuspecting Tom, striking him midway between the root of the tail and the base of the brain, causing instant suspension of his vertebral communications, "Poor thing!

Thus the Devonian Ganoids, though almost all members of the same sub-order as Polypterus, and presenting numerous important resemblances to the existing genus, which possesses biconclave vertebrae, are, for the most part, wholly devoid of ossified vertebral centra.

But the most remarkable examples of progressive modification of the vertebral column, in correspondence with geological age, are those afforded by the Pycnodonts among fish, and the Labyrinthodonts among Amphibia.

Hermann von Meyer, again, to whose luminous researches we are indebted for our present large knowledge of the organisation of the older Labyrinthodonts, has proved that the Carboniferous Archegosaurus had very imperfectly developed vertebral centra, while the Triassic Mastodonsaurus had the same parts completely ossified.

[Footnote 6: As this Address is passing through the press (March 7, 1862), evidence lies before me of the existence of a new Labyrinthodont (Pholidogaster), from the Edinburgh coal-field with well-ossified vertebral centra.]

To a certain extent, indeed, it may be said that imperfect ossification of the vertebral column is an embryonic character; but, on the other hand, it would be extremely incorrect to suppose that the vertebral columns of the older Vertebrata are in any sense embryonic in their whole structure.

To a certain extent, indeed, it may be said that imperfect ossification of the vertebral column is an embryonic character; but, on the other hand, it would be extremely incorrect to suppose that the vertebral columns of the older Vertebrata are in any sense embryonic in their whole structure.

In the apparently complete absence of hinder limbs, and in the characters of the vertebral column, the Zeuglodon lies on the cetacean side of the boundary line; so that upon the whole, the Zeuglodonts, transitional as they are, are conveniently retained in the cetacean order.

THE TAILS OF ANIMALS.In the class Mammalia, the vertebral column or backbone presents only slight modifications, and everywhere shows the same characteristics as in man, who stands at the head of this division of the animal kingdom.

B D represents the vertebral column; A C, the sternum; and A B and C D, the ribs.

Vertebral Column (Lat. vertebra, a joint).

Centrality N. centrality, centricalness^, center; middle &c 68; focus &c 74. core, kernel; nucleus, nucleolus; heart, pole axis, bull's eye; nave, navel; umbilicus, backbone, marrow, pith; vertebra, vertebral column; hotbed; concentration &c (convergence) 290; centralization; symmetry.

Adj. central, centrical^; middle &c 68; azygous, axial, focal, umbilical, concentric; middlemost; rachidian^; spinal, vertebral.

The shoulder-blades, the elbows, the wrists, and the finger-joints are all made to fire off their muffled volleys; and then, placing one knee between our shoulders, and clasping both hands upon our forehead, he draws our head back until we feel a great snap of the vertebral column.

They either walk, creep, or advance rapidly by prodigious bounds; but they seldom run, owing, it is believed, to the extreme flexibility of their limbs and vertebral column, which cannot preserve the rigidity necessary to that species of movement.

Goethe and Oken discovered at the same time the vertebral system.

Soon, in the place where they had fallen, there was nothing left but a few light coals, one or two pieces of the vertebral column, fingers, toes, that the fire does not consume, in cases of spontaneous combustion, but which it covers with an infectious and penetrating soot.

The other organs of the young tunicate are all of vertebral type.

Body elongate, compressed, subpentangular; back covered with very small semicircular scales, with a row of larger ovate keeled scales on each side, and 2 or 3 rows of similar larger keeled scales over the vertebral line; the sides covered with moderate ovate keeled scales, rather larger beneath the belly, covered with a series of transverse rounded plates.

It resembled greatly the Chelidona oblonga, inhabiting Western Australia, with the exception of the arch and its more oval shape; and as in that kind, the last vertebral plate was divided by a suture.

From these twenty-four vertebrae proceed the nervous plexi, all aiding a particular expression; so that the vertebral column forms the keys of the sympathetic human instrument.

If the finger is cut, there is a special emotion in one place of the vertebral column.

I knew little of the treatment required for spinal disease, but common-sense taught me that, in order to effect a cure, the vertebral column must be relieved as much as possible from pressure, and allowed to rest.