A catalogue of the preparations in the anatomical museum of Guy's Hospital / / arranged and edited, by desire of the Treasurer of the hospital, and of the teachers of the medical and surgical school, by Thomas Hodgkin.

  • Thomas Hodgkin
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A catalogue of the preparations in the anatomical museum of Guy's Hospital / / arranged and edited, by desire of the Treasurer of the hospital, and of the teachers of the medical and surgical school, by Thomas Hodgkin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    posed of nine primitive portions, appears to be precisely in this predicament; since, though it may be rendered plausible in one or more particular Vertebrae, it is by no means the case with others, whatever be the period of for- mation at which the examination is made. But were this point to be conceded to the plea of our inability properly to make the examination of parts so minute and tender as those in question must be, in the youngest embryo, a new difficulty meets us in the very next step; since, according to the Professor's own statement, the development of one or other of the rings or arches attached to the body or Cycleal portion may acquire an extraordinary develop- ment at the expense of the opposite circle, which, in conse- ({uence, is either wholly or ])artially lost. Hence, on the hypothesis that the Cranium is composed of developed Vertebrae, it is by no means necessary that the number of its component parts should be an exact multiple of nine. Again, by admitting into the list of Bones, parts which are never met with but in the form of Cartilage, such as the Tarsi and the Septum Narium, a wide door is opened to doubt, not to say to error. It is this doubt which, d priori, induces a suspicion of the correctness of the calculation by which it is attempted to be shewn that seven Vertebrae are to be sought amongst the elements of the Scull. Let the facts be examined, and it will probably be concluded, d posteriori, that three or four of the supposed anterior Vertebrae must be discarded, and the number of primitive Sections, or Cinctures, analogous to Vertebra;, reduced. It is in their important office of supporting and pro- tecting a portion of the central part of the Nervous Sy- stem by means of an arch or ring fixed upon a body, which, united to its fellows, concurs to form a medial support to the bony frame-work of the animal, that the Bones of the Cranium are, in some degree, analogous to those of the Spine. Now the Bones of the Face can scarcely be said to participate in these resemblances. Like those of the Extremities, they are subservient to fjinctions, in which the Nerves, or, in other words, the
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