MONOGRAPH OF THE EXISTING CRINOIDS. 



173 



logical stand he was later strongly supported by Minckert, and the term lias now 

 universally come to be restricted as he suggested. 



Bather believes, with Carpenter, that a syzygy is an oblique muscular articu- 

 lation which has become pe- 

 culiarly specialized, the proxi- 

 mal ossicle during this proc- 

 ess having lost its pinnule 

 and much of its individuality. 

 But it is obvious that if this 

 were the case the proximal 

 and distal articulations of the 

 svzvgial pairs would be paral- 

 lel, and both strongly oblique 

 in the same direction, for the 

 course taken by oblique mus- 

 cular articulations across the 

 arm always alternates at suc- 

 ceeding articulations, and if 

 one of these articulations 

 were transformed into a 

 syzygy and thus made hori- 

 zontal the articulations on 

 either side of it, with both 

 of which it alternates in posi- 

 tion and which would be- 

 come the proximal and distal 

 articulations of the resultant 

 syzygial pair, would of neces- 

 sity be parallel with each 

 other, a condition never 

 found. Moreover, the pin- 

 nules always alternate in 

 position on either side of the 

 arm ; if an oblique muscular 

 articulation were transformed 

 into a syzygy and the pinnule 

 on the brachial the distal 

 border of which was formed 



by that articulation lost, the FIG. 222. LATERAL VIEW OF TYPE SPECIMEN OF OCEASOMETRA 



pinnules on either side of the ASNAXDALEI. 



syzygy (the pinnule on the distal end of the syzygial pair and that on the distal 

 end of the brachial preceding it) would come to lie on the same side of the arm, 

 and thus all along the arm at every sj'zygial pair two pinnules would be found 

 on the same side of the arm, a condition which never occurs. 



222 



