Читать книгу Anatomy and Embalming - Charles Otto Dhonau - Страница 56

—The spine is a flexuous and flexible column formed of a series of bones called vertebrae. There are twenty-six in number and may be divided as follows:

Cervical	7	bones
Dorsal	12	“
Lumbar	5	“
Sacral	1	“
Coccygeal	1	“

Fig. 13—The Spine.

The cervical vertebrae are smaller than those in any other region of the spine, and may be readily distinguished as they lie in the neck and extend from the base of the skull to the dorsal vertebrae, or the point of attachment of the first rib to the first dorsal.

The dorsal or thoracic vertebrae are the next in rotation down the spine and are intermediate in size between those in the cervical and those in the lumbar region, and increase in size from above downward.

The lumbar vertebrae, the next in rotation, are the largest of the vertebral column and can be distinguished as those lying in the lumbar region or the small of the back.

The sacrum, meaning sacred, so called, because it was the part selected in sacrifices. The sacrum is a large triangular bone, situated at the lower part of the vertebral column, and at the upper and back part of the pelvic cavity.

The coccyx, so called from having been compared to a cuckoo's beak. It is usually formed of four small segments of bones, and gradually diminish in size from above downward, and blend together so as to form a single bone.

The spinal column is situated in the median line, at the posterior part of the trunk. Its average length is about two feet, two or three inches. The female spine is about one inch shorter than the male.

The spinal canal in which runs the spinal cord, follows the different curves of the spine; the opening being the largest in those regions in which the spine enjoys the greatest freedom of movement, and the smallest where motion is more limited.