Dorsal fin

“ In addition to these peculiarities, we may remark, that the spine makes a sudden twist near the head to one side; that the bones of the head are not symmetrical; that the two sides of the mouth are unequal; that the pectoral and ventral fins of the under side are generally smaller than those of the upper; and that the dorsal and anal fins generally correspond to each other, the one fringing the whole length of the dorsal, the other that of the ventral edge of the body. ”

“ The dorsal spines of the vertebrae are connected with a set of ossified ligaments binding the whole dorso-lumbar region into a rigid mass—another peculiarity in which the structure is strikingly like that of birds. ”

“ Two or three of the anterior dorsal vertebrae have very long slender spinous processes which in the living animal project beyond the general level of the skin forming distinct conical prominences, covered only by an exceedingly thin and naked integument. ”

“ Dorsal Breathing.—Assume standing position with active chest; place the fingers at the back on dorsal muscles, and thumbs on the side; take a full breath, trying to expand the muscles under your fingers as much as you can. Rightly done, the abdominal and costal muscles, and the ribs, will also expand; the chest, if not already active, will rise; the shoulders will remain quiet. In giving out the breath, let the chest be the last to sink. This is the way of breathing in every healthy man, woman, and child. ”

“ Make a man lean forwards, with his arms folded across the chest; this will make prominent the spines of the vertebræ. The lower border of the trapezius will guide you to the spine of the twelfth dorsal vertebra. ”

“ As the formation of bone predominates upon the side exposed to the light or the nervous, so does that of muscle upon the shady or vascular side. The abdominal side of the animal is the muscular, just as the dorsal side is the osseous. Upon the thorax, abdomen, on the members which belong to the anterior region of the body, and on the face, the muscular layer is by far the most predominant. ”

“ The joints or the dorsal or back vertebræ are, notwithstanding, more close and compact than those of the loins; allowing of a wider range for bending and turning in the loins than the back.
12. The sternum and ribs move upward, to assist the chest in the expansion required for respiration; drawing the clavicles and the shoulders upwards in full inspiration, and tend to a contrary motion on expiration. Such movements also, characterise strong action and certain passion, and very apparent in a naked figure. ”

“ In the course of his long evolution from a hairy stock, whether simian as we thought yesterday, or a lower one as Professor Woods Jones suggests to-day, these dorsal surfaces of neck, trunk and extensor surfaces of limbs have been exposed through countless generations of men to vastly more stimuli of friction, pressure, and response, than those of the ventral and flexor regions. ”

“ To obviate the pressure on the swollen and inflamed organ the position assumed is right lateral-dorsal, the body inclined to the right, the right thigh flexed on the pelvis, and the spinal column so curved as to relax the abdominal muscles of the right side. ”

“ We must remember that on the dorsal surface of the foot in man we find but a single muscle—the dorsalis pedis. The remaining subcutaneous structures of this region consist of the tendons of the anterior muscles of the leg which occupy this dorsal aspect. ”

“ The first pair of dorsal nerves pass out between the first two dorsal vertebræ. The first few dorsal nerve branches innervate only the trunk muscles. Other branches supply the skin and the other adjacent integument. The ventral branches of the cervical nerves often communicate with the ventral branches of the first dorsal nerves. These branches are larger than the superior branches and aid in the formation of the brachial plexus. Smaller inferior branches are distributed to the scalenus and other muscles, and extend as far posterior as the intestines. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A typical vertebra consists of a middle portion, the centrum, a dorsal portion, the dorsal or neural arch, which surrounds the spinal cord, and a ventral portion, the ventral or haemal arch, which similarly encloses a space. ”

“ A large amount of ingenuity, it is true, has been spent in the endeavour to force the cranial nerves into a series of segmental nerves, which arise in the same way as the spinal by two roots, of which the ventral series ought to be efferent and the dorsal series afferent, but without success. ”

“ The influence of the dorsal spines upon the life and natatory or waving movement of Fishes is so slight, and its value generally, in comparison with other parts, to be taken so little into account, that a natural arrangement can never result from these appendages, which do not deserve to be called organs, and viewed as principal characters. ”

“ Twenty-two longitudinal series of scales between the origin of the posterior dorsal and the anal, forty transverse ones be [175] tween the anterior dorsal and the snout. The height of the body is contained six times and two-thirds in the total length, the length of the head four times. ”

“ If the spinal cord is divided in the middle of the back, for example, the skin of the feet may be cut, or pinched, or burned, or wetted with vitriol, without any sensation of touch, or of pain, arising in consciousness. ”

“ Advantage might occasionally be derived if the back of the hand could tell us more than it does about the shapes of the surfaces touched. Why should the thigh near the knee be twice as perceptive as the middle of the thigh? And, last of all, why should the middle of the forearm, middle of the thigh, middle of the back of the neck, and middle of the back, all stand on the lowest level, as having but one-thirtieth of the perceptive power which the tip of the forefinger has? ”

“ As the neck has much to do with the arm, we should keep a living picture of the forms of each bone, how and where it articulates with others, how it is joined by ligaments, what blood vessels, nerves and muscles cross or range with it lengthwise, because to overlook a small nerve and blood vessel you may fail to remove a goitre, and all diseases of the head, face and neck. ”

“ The pressure of the corset depriving, in a great measure, the muscles of the back, by which the upright position of the body is maintained, of their natural action, and the blood being prevented from circulating freely through their vessels, they become relaxed, and allow the body to bend ungracefully either to one side or forwards: in time, the curvature of the spine which results, becomes permanent, and the individual is often in this manner deformed for life. ”

“ Dissimilar parts are those which we call organical, or instrumental, and they be inward or outward. The chiefest outward parts are situate forward or backward:—forward, the crown and foretop of the head, skull, face, forehead, temples, chin, eyes, ears, nose, &c., neck, breast, chest, upper and lower part of the belly, hypocondries, navel, groin, flank, &c.; backward, the hinder part of the head, back, shoulders, sides, loins, hipbones, os sacrum, buttocks, &c. ”

“ The anterior roots have not been so satisfactorily investigated as the posterior, but they grow out, possibly by several roots for each nerve, from the ventral corners of the spinal cord, and subsequently become attached to the posterior nerves. ”

“ The back portion of the spinal marrow and the nerves that run from it are employed in sensation, or the sense of feeling. These nerves extend over the whole body, but are largely developed in the net-work of nerves in the skin. The front portion of the spinal marrow and its branches are employed in moving those muscles in all parts of the body which are controlled by the will or choice of the mind. These are called the nerves of motion. ”

“ This movement of the whole limb is what we think of when the joint's nerves are excited in that way; and its place is so much more important than the joint's place that our sense of the latter is taken up, so to speak, into our perception of the former, and the sensation of the movement seems to diffuse itself into our very fingers and toes. But by abstracting our attention from the suggestion of the entire extremity we can perfectly well perceive the same sensation as if it were concentrated in one spot. ”

“ If pectoral and abdominal muscles are repeated in the face, so also must the anterior bones, ribs, and limbs be repeated. It will be shown, in treating of the organs, that the nose is a vertebra, the jaws members, and their muscles those of the limbs. The head is the whole trunk with all its systems. The brain is the spinal365 marrow, the skull the vertebral column, the mouth intestine and abdomen, the nose lung and thorax, the jaws are members. ”

“ We are told, and with perfect truth, that in man the occipital foramen--the aperture through which the brain is connected with the spinal cord--is so placed that the head is nearly in equilibrium when he stands upright. ”

“ In Man, in consequence partly of the disposition of the articular surfaces of the vertebra, and largely of the elastic tension of some of the fibrous bands, or ligaments, which connect these vertebræ 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. ”

“ When a person is pained in the back part of the head, he is benefited by having the straight vein in the forehead opened.
69. Rigors commence in women, especially at the loins, and spread by the back to the head; and in men also, rather in the posterior than the anterior side of the body, as from the arms and thighs; the skin there is rare, as is obvious from the growth of hair on them. ”

“ And what is very remarkable is, that, in speaking of these movements which arise by a sensation being as it were reflected from the central apparatus into a limb—as, for example, when one's finger is pricked and the arm is suddenly drawn up, the motion of the sensory nerve travels to the spine and is again reflected down to the muscles of the arm—Descartes uses the very phrase that, we at this present time employ. ”

“ Your head is set logically on your neck, and your neck is correctly placed on your spine, and your legs and arms are properly attached to your torso—your entire body, anatomically speaking, is hinged, hung, supported, developed as the ideal body should be. ”

“ Now, the spine was not only to furnish the main trunk for the passage of the medullary substance from the brain, but to give out, in the course of its progress, small pipes therefrom, which, being afterwards indefinitely subdivided, might, under the name of nerves, distribute this exquisite supply to every part of the body. ”

“ Every one considers it as a medullary cord, extending from the head to the sacrum, sending in its course various ramifications to the neck, the thorax and the abdomen, following in its distributions a course analogous to those nerves of the spine, and deriving its origin from those nerves, according to some, and from those of the brain, according to others. ”

“ I have given you quite pointedly and at length, hints on spine and sacrum which cover the territory below the diaphragm. In conclusion I will simply refer you to the chest, neck and brain, and say, "let your search light ever shine bright on the brain." On it we must depend for power. About all nerves do run through the neck and branch off to supply both above and below, to do their parts in animal life, to the heart, brain and sum total of man and beast. Search faithfully for cause of diseases in head, neck, chest, spine and pelvis ”

“ Nature really does form angles of varying acuteness and obtuseness to the base-line of the face at its two extremities—very acute angles between it and the front line of the face at its anterior extremity, and very obtuse angles between it and the line of the spinal column at its posterior extremity, in the lower vertebrates, and almost right angles at the same points in human beings. ”

“ Thy wisdom is surely boundless, for I see that man must be wise to know all about the neck, for we find by a twist of neck, we may become blind, deaf, spasmodic, lose speech and memory, and all that is known as the joys of man. On that division of the body all action of arms, legs, chest and all muscles get their life [Pg 46] —power and motion. ”

“ The enormous hind quarters, the limbs and the loins, the broad pelvis, the thick spinal cord supplying abundant nervous energy to the swelling muscles, inserted in the ridged and keeled bones, all come into play, as a point d'appui for the Herculean effort. ”

“ For we move at will not only those members which are furnished with joints of solid bone, as the hands, feet, and fingers, but we move also at will those which are composed of slack and soft nerves: we can put them in motion, or stretch them out, or bend and twist them, or contract and stiffen them, as we do with the muscles of the mouth and face. ”

“ Instead of standing out at a considerable angle from the spine, and thus affording free scope for the action of the heart and lungs, which are the organs essential to existence, the chest falls downwards, pressing on the abdo­minal cavity, the ends of the ribs are brought into closer approximation, the sternum or chest-bone is forced inwards, and the cavity of the chest consider­ably diminished. ”

“ Force applied to any body segment tends to subluxate the segmentally associated vertebra. This subluxation tends to produce disease throughout the area of distribution of the subjacent pair of spinal nerves. ”