Note g — BOOK IX.
Reading edition
Vertebrarum Apophysos breviores sunt, præcipuè juxta caput, cujus propterea flexus in aversum, & latera, facilis Viperis est: secus Leonibus, &c.——Incumbit his Ossibus ingens Musculorum minutorum præsidium, tum spinas tendinum exilium magno apparatu diducentium, tum vertebras potissimum in diversa flectentium, atque erigentium. Adeoque illam corporis miram agilitatem, non tantùm (ut Aristot.) ὅτι ἐπικαμπεῖς καὶ χονδρώδεις ὁι σπόνδυλοι quoniam faciles ad flexum, & cartilagineas produxit vertebras, sed quia etiam multiplicia motûs localis instrumenta musculos fabrefecit provida rerum Parens Natura, consecuta fuit. Blas. Anat. Anim. P. 1. c. 39. de Viperâ è Veslingio.
That which is most remarkable in the Vertebræ [of the Rattle-Snake, besides the other curious Articulations,] is, that the round Ball in the lower Part of the upper Vertebra, enters a Socket of the upper Part of the lower Vertebra, like as the Head of the Os Femoris doth the Acetabulum of the Os Ischii; by which Contrivance, as also the Articulation with one another, they have that free Motion of winding their Bodies any Way. Dr. Tyson’s Anat. of the Rattle-Snake in Phil. Trans. Nᵒ. 144. What is here observ’d of the Vertebræ of this Snake, is common to this whole Genus of Reptiles.