Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy of the Spine

Description: Osteology. The Spine is a flexuous column, formed of a series of bones called Vertebra. The Vertebrae are divided into true and false. The true vertebrae are twenty-four in number, and have received the names cervical, dorsal, and lumbar, according to the position which they occupy; seven being found in the cervical region, twelve in the dorsal, and five in the lumbar. The false vertebrae, nine in number, are firmly united, so as to form two bones —five entering into the formation of the upper bone or sacrum, and four into the terminal bone of the spine or coccyx.