Synopsis of the physiological series in the Christ Church Museum : arranged for the use of students after the plan of the Hunterian collection, and chiefly under the divisions of the Hunterian catalogue.

  • Christ Church (University of Oxford). Anatomical Museum.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Synopsis of the physiological series in the Christ Church Museum : arranged for the use of students after the plan of the Hunterian collection, and chiefly under the divisions of the Hunterian catalogue. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    repair, in most cases formed in cartilage, in some in membrane, and of intri- cate arrangement. The intimate structure of bone, the arrangement of its vascular canals, of the laminae that surround them, and of the cells and tubes which convey the nutrient plasma, show great diversity among the Vertebrate animals. The skeletons of Invertebrata are not true Bone. In the Mollusca and Articulata, they are principally external, and are part of the Tegumentary System; the muscular apparatus in them derives its attachment from the in- terior of this, which is therefore called an external skeleton. In some of the Eadiata the hard support is external, in some internal. It is developed between layers of the Integument in the Echinodermata. Among the Zoophytes, it has the consistency and texture adapted to their mode of life and external conditions—horny and pliable, chiefly of animal matter, or hard, and almost wholly calcareous. The endo-skeleton of Vertebrata protects and incloses the chief central masses of the Nervous System (cerebrospinal axis). It is divided into a series of segments called Vertebrae. According to the dimensions of the Nerve mass, at any given point, must be the size of the bony case which incloses it. Where the Nerve mass expands in the Brain, part of the Cranial Vertebrae expand to receive it. But Vertebrae have other relations. They protect the Circulatory, as well as the Nervous, system; and therefore parts of certain Vertebrae are largely developed, to inclose the Heart and the Lungs, or to protect the principal Blood-vessels. They afford also fulcra for the organs of locomotion, which are ordinarily appendages to a Vertebral arch, specially developed for their support. The various modifications of the Vertebrae and their appendages, and the investigation of their respective Homologies, or “ the sameness of parts under every variety of form and function,” will ever form a most interesting branch of Osteological study. The works of Professor Owen give not only the result of his search after the Type or Archetype on which all Vertebrate skeletons are constructed, but also much historical information on the progress of the questions that have arisen concerning the essential nature of various parts of the skeleton. The preparations that are enumerated in the present section are intended to illustrate and to further this difficult study.