REPORT ON THE CRINOIDEA. 405 



Perrier cannot well be unaware of the fact at the present time, as it is noticed in the text of 

 Ludwig's work on the Crinoids, and the paper is properly quoted in his bibliography. It 

 is difficult, therefore, to see on what grounds Perrier bases his claim respecting the re- 

 discovery of these ciliated funnels, " sur lesquels, dejjuis Johannes Mtiller, j'ai le premier 

 attire I'attention (1872)." When he published the paper here referred to, he had only 

 made a superficial examination of these openings, each of which he described as leading 

 into a small cul-de-sac. It would seem indeed as if he were then unaware, not only of 

 Grimm's more correct observations of the previous year, which may be readily understood, 

 but also of Miiller's description of these pores 'published nearly thirty years before ;^ for 

 he never mentioned Miiller at all, and suggested that the pores might be special sense 

 organs ! Now, however, he tells us that they have a threefold connection — (l) -with the 

 water-vascular ring; (2) with the plexus of glandular tubules round the gullet ; (3) with 

 the ca\'ities of the chambered organ. No other observers have noticed these points, and 

 Prof. Perrier's proofs of his statements will be awaited with much interest. 



NOTE E. 



(Page 102.) 



On the Intervisceral Blood- Vessels. 



Perrier admits in his latest note " that diverticula of the cavity of the axial organ 

 extend through the coelom, and that while some of them " apparaissent sur les coupes 

 comme termines en culs-de-sac, d'autres se plongent manifestement en canaux. Quelques- 

 uns de ces canaux coureut parmi les trabecules innombrables de la cavite generale ; il en 

 est qui se rendent vers les bras." 



Some of these canals, which are regarded by Ludwig and myself as the intervisceral 

 blood-vessels, are represented in PI. LVII. figs. 2-5 and PL LX. figs. 3, 5 — ib. If they 

 are merely parts of a " vaste systeme aquifere," as Perrier believes, it is difficult to 

 understand their existence ; for the body-cavity through which they ramify already 

 contains water which has entered it by the water-pores of the disk. What then is the 

 object of a special set of aquiferous tubes distributed over the coils of the digestive canal 

 and not communicating with the ambulacral system, but with the axial organ and the 

 labial plexus ; and w^hy is it that their lumen is so frequently filled up with eoagulum ? 



NOTE F. 



(Page 106.) 



On the Relation of the Vascular Systems of a Crinoid to those 



OF the other Echinoderms. 

 Perrier's latest views respecting the vascular system of a Orinoid are expressed in the 



1 Durch diese capillaren Poren kann das Wasser bis in die Nahe des ini Kelcli liegenden Eingeweidesacks 

 eindiingen (Ban des Pentacrinus, loc. cit., p. 49 ; see also the Bau der E<'hiuoderiuen, loc. cit., p. G3). 

 - Coinptcs renins, t. xcviii. p. 1449. 



