58 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, 



Professor von Marenzeller was the first to indicate that, so fur as its crinoids 

 are concerned, the fauna of the western part of the Sea of Japan is in reality the 

 same as that of the iVrctic Ocean nortli of Euroj)e. 



GENERAL SUUVEY OP THE HISTORY. 



The liistor_v of the doveloi)ment of tlie stud}' of the comatulids is strangely 

 short when compared to the corresponding history of other groups of marine inverte- 

 brates. There has been a curious reluctance among investigators in regard to 

 attempting work upon these animals. But on the whole this is probably a fortunate 

 circumstance, for few organisms are so baffling and so difficult of systematic analysis, 

 and few have so well resisted the efforts of able zoologists properly to understand 

 them. 



The four works which may justly be considered as marking the four epochs in 

 the study of the comatulids are those of Linck (1733), Lamarck (1816), J. Miiller 

 (1849), and P. II. Carpenter (ISSS), and about these four works the work of all 

 the other authors may be said to have centered, with a remarkably close corre- 

 spondence to the model. There has been an absence of originality and of attempts 

 at revision which is especiall}'' striking when we compare the history of the coma- 

 tulids with that of the stalked crinoids. 



Although many serious errors have been made, and many wholly illogical 

 methods of systematic treatment proposed, it is perhaps remarkable that the mis- 

 takes have been so few. One can not help commenting upon the fact that the 

 study of the comatulids has been followed by so many of the greatest zoologists 

 of the past two centuries, and how few are the names of men who have not attained 

 to the highest eminence along other lines. 



At the present day the study of the comatulids is in its infancy ; nothing more 

 than a beginning has been made, even in the systematic aspect, the pliase of the 

 study of every group which commonly first appeals to the novice. One of the chief 

 aims of the present contribution is to demonstrate how woeful is our lack of definite 

 information in regard to even the commonest species, of their systematic interre- 

 lationshijjs, their habitat, their habits, their life history, their anatomy, and of their 

 geological significance, not to mention their relations to temperature, depth, pressure, 

 light, salinity, and in general to all the physics and chemistrj' of their environment, 

 and to the other animals and the jjlants surrounded by which they live. It is 

 greatly to be hoped that the present memoir will call attention to these animals 

 in a way that ^vill result in a great increase in the amount of work upon them, 

 and will serve as a stimulus and suggestive guide to young investigators looking 

 for an uncrowded and promising field in which to prosecute their labors, so that we 

 may, in the not far distant future, appreciate the general tnitlis in regard to their 

 "natural history," whereby we may, as we can through no other animals so well, 

 arrive at a clear understanding of many problems in marine biology and in geology. 



