On the cervical vertebrae and their articulations in fin-whales / by John Struthers.

  • Struthers, John, 1823-1899
Date:
[1872]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the cervical vertebrae and their articulations in fin-whales / by John Struthers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [From the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, Yol. VII. November, 1872.] ON THE CERVICAL VERTEBRAE AND THEIR ARTICULATIONS IN FIN-WHALES. By John Struthers, M.D., Professor of Anatomy in the Univer¬ sity of Aberdeen. (Plates I. and II.) The great diversity presented by the cervical vertebrae in Whales gives a special interest to this part of Cetacean ana¬ tomy. The differences relate chiefly to the amount of ankylosis and the extent to which the transverse processes are developed. These differences have been a good deal relied on in endea¬ vouring to distinguish genera and species, and have been re¬ garded mostly from that point of view. Yet these various conditions of the cervical vertebrae do not follow the natural affinities within the order, nor can we say that the circum¬ stances which determine them are understood. Sufficient allowance has not always been made for difference of age and for individual variation, which the study of a series of specimens from the same species alone can teach us; and these vertebrae have been but little examined in the light of their relation to the soft parts, although without an examination from this point of view it is impossible to interpret the modifications which bones present. The following remarks are founded on the observation of a series of osteological specimens and on the results of the dissection of the soft parts. I shall first consider the neck in Fin-Whales, arranging'my remarks in the following order. VOL. VII.