Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s2.t4.1

c7.s2.t4.1

1. *Pṛṣṭha*, back; *pṛṣṭha-vaṃśa*, lit. back-row, i. e. vertebral or spinal column; *pṛṣṭh-āsthi*, back-bone, or *pṛṣṭha-gat-āsthi*, bone belonging to the back, or *pṛṣṭi*, back-bone, all three denoting the vertebra. The first two terms are chiefly found in Suśruta; the next two chiefly in Charaka and in the Non-medical version of the Institutes of Vishnu. The last term, *pṛṣṭi* (or *pṛṣṭī*), which properly denotes the transverse process of a vertebra, and thence the vertebra itself, is peculiar to the Vedas (§§ 42, 43), where it occurs in the plural number to denote the series of vertebrae or the vertical column.¹ 2. The actual number of the bones of the entire vertebral column is twenty-six, consisting of twenty-four simple and two composite bones. The former are the true vertebrae, and comprise the seven cervical, the twelve thoracic, and the five lumbar