Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Echinoderma" to "Edward, prince of Wales" / Volume 8, Slice 10

Articles in This Slice

Among these the abyssal starfish and holothurians described by W.P. Sladen and H. Théel respectively, in the Report of the “Challenger” Expedition, are most notable. The sea-urchins, ophiuroids and crinoids also have yielded many important novelties to A. Agassiz (“Challenger,” “Blake,” and “Albatross” Expeditions), T. Lyman (“Challenger”), Sladen (“Astrophiura,” Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. , 1879), F.J. Bell (numerous papers in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. and in Proc. Zool. Soc. ), E. Perrier (“Travailleur” and “Talisman,” Cape Horn and Monaco Expeditions), P.H. Carpenter “Challenger” Reports), and others. The anatomical researches of these authors, as well as those of S. Lovén (“On Pourtalesia” and “Echinologica,” published by the Swedish Academy of Science), H. Ludwig ( Morphologische Studien , Leipzig, 1877-1882), O. Hamann ( Histologie der Echinodermen , Jena, 1883-1889), L. Cuénot (“Études morphologiques,” Arch. Biol. , 1891, and papers therein referred to), P.M. Duncan (“Revision of the Echinoidea,” Journ. Linn. Soc. , 1890), H. Prouho (“Sur Dorocidaris,” Arch. Zool. Exper. , 1888), and many more, need only be mentioned to recall the great advance that has been made. In physiology may be instanced W.B. Carpenter’s proof of the nervous nature of the chambered organ and axial cords of crinoids ( Proc. Roy. Soc. , 1884), the researches of H. Durham ( Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. , 1891) and others into the wandering cells of the body-cavity, and the study of the deposition of the skeletal substance (“stereom”) by Théel (in Festskrift för Lilljeborg , 1896). Knowledge of the development has been enormously extended by numerous embryologists, e.g. Ludwig ( op. cit. ), E.W. MacBride (“Asterina gibbosa,” Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. , 1896), H. Bury ( Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. , 1889, 1895), Seeliger (on “Antedon,” Zool. Jahrb. , 1893), S. Goto (“Asterias pallida,” Journ. Coll. Sci. Japan , 1896), C. Grave (“Ophiura,” Mem. Johns Hopkins Univ. , 1899), Théel (“Echinocyamus,” Nov. Act. Soc. Sci. Upsala , 1892), R. Semon (“Synapta,” Jena. Zeitschr. , 1888), and Lovén ( opp. citt. ); and though the theories based thereon may have been fantastic and contradictory, we are now near the time when the results can be co-ordinated and some agreement reached. But the scattered details of comparative anatomy are capable of manifold arrangement, while the palimpsest of individual development is not merely fragmentary, but often has the fragments misplaced. The morphologist may propose classifications, and the embryologist may erect genealogical trees, but all schemes which do not agree with the direct evidence of fossils must be abandoned; and it is this evidence, above all, that gained enormously in volume and in value during the last quarter of the 19th century. The Silurian crinoids and cystids of Sweden have been illustrated in N.P. Angelin’s Iconographia crinoideorum (1878); the Palaeozoic crinoids and cystids of Bohemia are dealt with in J. Barrande’s Système silurien (1887 and 1899); P.H. Carpenter published important papers on fossil crinoids in the Journal of the Geological Society, on Cystidea in that of the Linnean Society, 1891, and, together with R. Etheridge, jun., compiled the large Catalogue of Blastoidea in the British Museum , 1886; O. Jaekel, in addition to valuable studies on crinoids and cystids appearing in the Zeitschrift of the German Geological Society, has published the first volume of Die Stammesgeschichte der Pelmatozoen (Berlin, 1899), a richly suggestive work; the Mesozoic Echinoderms of France, Switzerland and Portugal have been made known by P. de Loriol, G.H. Cotteau, J. Lambert, V. Gauthier and others (see Paléontologie française , Mém. Soc. paléontol. de la Suisse , Trabalhos Comm. Geol. Portugal , &c.); a beautiful and interesting Devonian fauna from Bundenbach has been described by O. Follmann, Jaekel, and especially B. Stürtz (see Verhandl. nat. Vereins preuss. Rheinlande, Paläont. Abhandl. , and Palaeontographica ); while the multitude of North American palaeozoic crinoids has been attacked by C. Wachsmuth and F. Springer in the Proceedings (1879, 1881, 1885, 1886), of the Philadelphia Academy and the Memoirs (1897) of the Harvard Museum.