In the longitudinal section of the ideal vertebrate (Fig. 98) we have in the middle of the body a thin and flexible, but stiff, cylindrical rod, pointed at both ends (_ch_). It goes the whole length through the middle of the body, and forms, as the central skeletal axis, the original structure of the later vertebral column. This is the axial rod, or _chorda dorsalis,_ also called _chorda vertebralis,_ vertebral cord, axial cord, dorsal cord, _notochorda,_ or, briefly, _chorda._ This solid, but flexible and elastic, axial rod consists of a cartilaginous mass of cells, and forms the inner axial skeleton or central frame of the body; it is only found in vertebrates and tunicates, not in any other animals. As the first structure of the spinal column it has the same radical significance in all vertebrates, from the amphioxus to man. But it is only in the amphioxus and the cyclostoma that the axial rod retains its simplest form throughout life. In man and all the higher vertebrates it is found only in the earlier embryonic period, and is afterwards replaced by the articulated vertebral column. The axial rod or chorda is the real solid chief axis of the vertebrate body, and at the same time corresponds to the ideal long-axis, and serves to direct us with some confidence in the orientation of the principal organs. We therefore take the vertebrate-body in its original, natural disposition, in which the long-axis lies horizontally, the dorsal side upward and the ventral side downward (Fig. 98). When we make a vertical section through the whole length of this long axis, the body divides into two equal and symmetrical halves, right and left. In each half we have _originally_ the same organs in the same disposition and connection; only their disposal in relation to the vertical plane of section, or median plane, is exactly reversed: the left half is the reflection of the right. We call the two halves _antimera_ (opposed-parts). In the vertical plane of section that divides the two halves the sagittal (“arrow”) axis, or “dorsoventral axis,” goes from the back to the belly, corresponding to the sagittal seam of the skull. But when we make a horizontal longitudinal section through the chorda, the whole body divides into a dorsal and a ventral half. The line of section that passes through the body from right to left is the transverse, frontal, or lateral axis.