Spinal accessory nerves, the eleventh pair of cranial nerves in the
higher vertebrates. They originate from the spinal cord and pass
forward into the skull, from which they emerge in company with the
pneumogastrics. -- Spinal column, the backbone, or connected series or
vertebræ which forms the axis of the vertebrate skeleton; the spine;
rachis; vertebral column. -- Spinal cord, the great nervous cord
extending backward from the brain along the dorsal side of the spinal
column of a vertebrate animal, and usually terminating in a threadlike
appendage called the filum terminale; the spinal, or vertebral, marrow;
the myelon. The nervous tissue consists of nerve fibers and nerve
cells, the latter being confined to the so-called gray matter of the
central portions of the cord, while the peripheral white matter is
composed of nerve fibers only. The center of the cord is traversed by a
slender canal connecting with the ventricles of the brain.
Spi"nate (?), a. Bearing a spine; spiniform.
Spin"dle (?), n. [AS. spinal, fr. spinnan to spin; akin to D. spil, G.
spille, spindel, OHG. spinnala. √170. See Spin.] 1. The long,
round, slender rod or pin in spinning wheels by which the thread is
twisted, and on which, when twisted, it is wound; also, the pin on
which the bobbin is held in a spinning machine, or in the shuttle of a
loom.
2. A slender rod or pin on which anything turns; an axis; as, the
spindle of a vane. Specifically: --
(a) (Mach.) The shaft, mandrel, or arbor, in a machine tool, as a lathe
or drilling machine, etc., which causes the work to revolve, or carries
a tool or center, etc.
(b) (Mach.) The vertical rod on which the runner of a grinding mill
turns.
(c) (Founding) A shaft or pipe on which a core of sand is formed.