That a Man hath one Rib less then a Woman, is a common conceit derived from the History of _Genesis_, wherein it stands delivered, that _Eve_ was framed out of a Rib of _Adam_; whence 'tis concluded the sex of man still wants that rib our Father lost in _Eve_. And this is not only passant with the many, but was urged against _Columbus_ in an Anatomy of his at _Pisa_, where having prepared the Sceleton of a woman that chanced to have thirteen ribs on one side, there arose a party that cried him down, and even unto oaths affirmed, this was the rib wherein a woman exceeded. Were this true, it would ocularly silence that dispute out of which side _Eve_ was framed; it would determine the opinion of _Oleaster_, that she was made out of the ribs of both sides, or such as from the expression of the Text [SN: Os ex ossibus meis.] maintain there was a plurality of ribs required; and might indeed decry the parabolical exposition of _Origen_, _Cajetan_, and such as fearing to concede a monstrosity, or mutilate the integrity of _Adam_, preventively conceive the creation of thirteen ribs. [Sidenote: _How many ribs commonly in men and women._] But this will not consist with reason or inspection. For if we survey the Sceleton of both sexes, and therein the compage of bones, we shall readily discover that men and women have four and twenty ribs, that is, twelve on each side, seven greater annexed unto the Sternon, and five lesser which come short thereof. Wherein if it sometimes happen that either sex exceed, the conformation is irregular, deflecting from the common rate or number, and no more inferrible upon mankind, then the monstrosity of the son of _Rapha_, or the vitious excess in the number of fingers and toes. And although some difference there be in figure and the female _os inominatum_ be somewhat more protuberant, to make a fairer cavity for the Infant; the coccyx sometime more reflected to give the easier delivery, and the ribs themselves seem a little flatter, yet are they equal in number. And therefore while _Aristotle_ doubteth the relations made of Nations, which had but seven ribs on a side, and yet delivereth, that men have generally no more than eight; as he rejecteth their history, so can we not accept of his Anatomy.