nt of the theory. In England the theory was
championed particularly by Richard Owen.

It was one thing to assert in a moment of inspiration that the skull was
composed of modified vertebrae; it was quite another to demonstrate the
relation of the separate bones of the skull to the supposed vertebrae.
Upon this much uncertainty reigned; there was not even unanimity as to
the number of vertebrae to be distinguished. Goethe found six vertebrae in
the skull; Spix, and at first Oken, three only, Geoffroy seven; the
accepted orthodox number seems to have been four (Bojanus, Oken, Owen).

As an example of the method of treatment adopted we may take Oken's
matured account of the composition of the cranial vertebrae, as given in
the English translation of his _Lehrbuch_. "To a perfect vertebra," he
says, "belong at least five pieces, namely, the body, in front the two
ribs, behind the two arches or spinous processes" (p. 370). In the
cervical vertebrae the transverse processes represent the ribs. The skull
consists of four vertebrae, the occipital, the parietal, the frontal and
the nasal, or, named after the sense with which each is associated, the
auditory, the lingual, the ocular and the olfactory. The "bodies" of
these vertebrae are the body of the occipital (basioccipital), the two
bodies of the sphenoid (basi- and pre-sphenoid), and the vomer. The
transverse processes of each are the condyles of the occipitals
(exoccipitals), the alae of the two sphenoids (alisphenoids and
orbitosphenoids) and the lateral surfaces of the vomer. The arches or
spinous processes are the occipital crest, the parietals, the frontals,
and the nasals.

The cranium is thus composed of four rings of bone, each composed of the
typical elements of a vertebra.

The arbitrary nature of the comparison is obvious enough. As Cuvier
pointed out in the posthumous edition of his _Lecons_, it is only the
occipital segment that shows any real analogy with a vertebra--an
analogy which Cuvier ascribed to similarity of function. He admitted a
faint resemblance of the parietal segment to a vertebra:--"The body of
the sphenoid does indeed look like a repetition of the basioccipital,
but having a different function it takes on another form, especially
above, by reason of its posterior clinoid apophyses."[157] He denied the
resemblance of the frontal and nasal "vertebrae" to true vertebrae,
pointing out that both parietals and frontals are bones specially
develope