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Subtitle: With Twenty-Eight Original Letters From Leading Thinkers and Writers Concerning Their Physical and Intellectual Habits General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1879 Original Publisher: M.L. Holbrook Subjects: Mental health Medical / Anatomy Medical / Neurology Medical / Neuroscience Psychology / Mental Health Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II. The Spinal Coed. The spinal cord is an extension of the brain outside of the skull into the passage that constitutes a part of that long chain of bones piled one upon the other, and called the spinal column or backbone. It is an easy matter to get a view ot this cord in any animal after the butcher has split the bones with his ax, exposing more or less of it in, it is true, a somewhat fragmentary state to our view; or it may be dissected out carefully in fishes, birds, or other small creatures, and studied with care. It is a soft, delicate, pulpy mass of gray and white substance, pro tected from injury by the bony prominences which arch around it in a very wonderful way, inclosing it on all sides in a long cavity, or canal, which is often called the spinal canal, and cerebrospinal axis. The cord is surrounded by an envelope of membranes which support it and the vessels supplying it with blood. The length of the cord is from eighteen to twenty inches, but its weight is very slight, hardly exceeding an ounce and a half. In form it is round, being slightly flattened in certain parts. It extends downward to the first lumbar vertebra. Like the brain, it is divided into two lateral halves. It would be tedious to discuss at great length the anatomy of the cord, which is exceedingly curious, and difficult to be understoo...