The spine of a tailor 70 years of age.

It consists of the cervical skeleton (excepting the atlas), of twelve half dorsal vertebrae on the left side, and eleven on the right, of four abdominal and four sacral vertebrae.

The six inferior cervical vertebrae form one curved hump: their bodies and articular processes are united, each to each, into one piece, of coarse cellular structure, the anterior surface of which looks as if the bony material had been poured over it in a fluid state and had then coagulated; while a tense, and partly ossified, ligamentous tissue, stretches down over the arches.

The sixth and twelfth dorsal vertebrae form the extremities of a slight curvature to the left, in the concavity of which (on the right side) there is half a vertebra wanting. For only the left half of the ninth dorsal vertebra exists, which is united to the eighth dorsal, and with it composes one very high body and a similar half arch on the convex side of the curve. There are two transverse processes of nearly equal size upon the half arch, and two spinous processes which lie one above the other, but are fused together.

All the dorsal vertebrae, from the sixth to the twelfth, are connected together, anteriorly, by a mass of bone, partly cellular and partly compact, which is most abundant over the intervertebral bodies, and looks as if it had been poured out upon them. Their articulations, also, are more or less completely anchylosed.

The spinous processes of the last two (the third and fourth), lumbar vertebrae, and the left transverse processes of the second and third, are driven upwards by a deviation of the sacrum considerably backwards and a little to the left; and the third and fourth spines are, at the same time, pressed together. The last lumbar is converted into a sacral vertebra.

The sacrum curves strongly backwards and to the left: it consists of four vertebrae; the last two of which, especially on the right side, in consequence of the displacement of the anterior and posterior sacral foramina from their natural positions, resemble a sieve perforated with large holes.