se vertebrae together,
the spinal column, as a whole, has an elegant S-like curvature, being
convex forwards in the neck, concave in the back, convex in the loins,
or lumbar region, and concave again in the sacral region; an arrangement
which gives much elasticity to the whole backbone, and diminishes the
jar communicated to the spine, and through it to the head, by locomotion
in the erect position.

Furthermore, under ordinary circumstances, Man has seven vertebrae in
his neck, which are called 'cervical'; twelve succeed these, bearing
ribs and forming the upper part of the back, whence they are termed
'dorsal'; five lie in the loins, bearing no distinct, or free, ribs, and
are called 'lumbar'; five, united together into a great bone, excavated
in front, solidly wedged in between the hip bones, to form the back of
the pelvis, and known by the name of the 'sacrum', succeed these; and
finally, three or four little more or less movable bones, so small as to
be insignificant, constitute the 'coccyx' or rudimentary tail.

In the Gorilla, the vertebral column is similarly divided into cervical,
dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal vertebrae, and the total number
of cervical and dorsal vertebrae, taken together, is the same as in
Man; but the development of a pair of ribs to the first lumbar vertebra,
which is an exceptional occurrence in Man, is the rule in the Gorilla;
and hence, as lumbar are distinguished from dorsal vertebrae only by the
presence or absence of free ribs, the seventeen "dorso-lumbar" vertebrae
of the Gorilla are divided into thirteen dorsal and four lumbar, while
in Man they are twelve dorsal and five lumbar.

(FIGURE 15.--Front and side views of the bony pelvis of Man, the Gorilla
and Gibbon: reduced from drawings made from nature, of the same absolute
length, by Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins.)

Not only, however, does Man occasionally possess thirteen pair of
ribs,* but the Gorilla sometimes has fourteen pairs, while an Orang-Utan
skeleton in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons has twelve
dorsal and five lumbar vertebrae, as in Man. ([Footnote] *"More
than once," says Peter Camper, "have I met with more than six
lumbar vertebrae in man...Once I found thirteen ribs and four lumbar
vertebrae." Fallopius noted thirteen pair of ribs and only four lumbar
vertebrae; and Eustachius once found eleven dorsal vertebrae and six
lumbar vertebrae.--'Oeuvres de Pierre Camper', T. 1, p. 42. As
Tyson states, his