Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
pages 101
| of the odontoid process is more compact than that of the body. The pedicles are broad and strong, especially in front, where they coalesce with the sides of the body and the root of the odontoid process. They are covered above by the superior articular surfaces. The laminæ are thick and strong, and the vertebral foramen large, but smaller than that of the atlas. The transverse processes are very small, and each ends in a single tubercle; each is perforated by the foramen transversarium, which is directed obliquely upward and lateralward. The superior articular surfaces are round, slightly convex, directed upward and lateralward, and are supported on the body, pedicles, and transverse processes. The inferior articular surfaces have the same direction as those of the other cervical vertebræ. The superior vertebral notches are very shallow, and lie behind the articular processes; the inferior lie in front of the articular processes, as in the other cervical vertebræ. The spinous process is large, very strong, deeply channelled on its under surface, and presents a bifid, tuberculated extremity. |
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FIG. 88– Second cervical vertebra, epistropheus, or axis, from the side. (See enlarged image) |
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FIG. 89– Seventh cervical vertebra. (See enlarged image) |
The Seventh Cervical Vertebra (Fig. 89).—The most distinctive characteristic of this vertebra is the existence of a long and prominent spinous process, hence the name vertebra prominens. This process is thick, nearly horizontal in direction, not bifurcated, but terminating in a tubercle to which the lower end of the ligamentum nuchæ is attached. The transverse processes are of considerable size, their posterior roots are large and prominent, while the anterior are small and faintly marked; the upper surface of each has usually a shallow sulcus for the eighth spinal nerve, and its extremity seldom presents more than a trace of bifurcation. The foramen |