Note 631 — Chapter XVI · ON FORM AND MECHANICAL EFFICIENCY

The form and direction of the vertebral spines have been frequently and elaborately described; cf. (e.g.) Gottlieb, H., Die Anticlinie der Wirbelsäule der Säugethiere, Morphol. Jahrb. LXIX, pp. 179–220, 1915, and many works quoted therein. According to Morita, Ueber die Ursachen der Richtung und Gestalt der thoracalen Dornfortsätze der Säugethierwirbelsäule (ibi cit. p. 201), various changes take place in the direction or inclination of these processes in rabbits, after section of the interspinous ligaments and muscles. These changes seem to be very much what we should expect, on simple mechanical grounds. See also Fischer, O., Theoretische Grundlagen für eine Mechanik der lebenden Körper, Leipzig, pp. 3, 372, 1906.