Z PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 



the laboiu's of those who have preceded us in this field of inquiiy, we cannot avoid 

 arriving at tlie con^action that much prejudice has been mdidged in, and much fanciful 

 speculation resorted to, for tlie purpose of establishing favomite theories, and explaining 

 structural pecidiarities wliich the evidence of worn and imjierfect specimens did not 

 warrant. 



These observations are considered necessary, as in the progress of our work deviations 

 from many received opinions -^vill present themselves. It may be naturally asked, on 

 what grounds we claim exemption from the same liability to err as preceding writers. 

 Our answer to such inqiury is, that owing to the fortimate discovery of numerous speci- 

 mens, perfect as regards aU thefr essential characters, we hope to be enabled to present 

 much additional information on the subject, to clear up many doubtfril points, and 

 above all to remove many imjoortant errors which have been unfortunately received as 

 established facts. 



In another part of the work many instances of erroneous conclusions respecting the 

 Crinoidea Avill be noticed, with a view of removing the obscurity in which the subject 

 has been involved, and which has tended so much to retard the study of these beautifril 

 fossil animals, the Lily-stars. It will not however be inapjjropriate to briefly notice 

 in this, the fii'st portion of oiu- ^Monograph, some errors and speciUations which have 

 been indulged in by distinguished writers, — ^writers to whom science is greatly indebted, 

 but who nevertheless, when treating on the Crinoidea, seem to have laid aside their 

 usual acumen, and to have become involved in a labyrinth of conjectiu-e and speculative 

 reasoning quite opposed to a cahn investigation of the subject. 



Great praise is unquestionably due to Miller, for his indefatigable industry in reducing 

 the confused laiowledge respecting the Encrinites to somethmg Uke a systematic ar- 

 rangement; yet he had such strong prejudices in favoiu- of certain views, that he appears 

 to have overlooked important facts which militated agamst his cherished theories. He 

 has in some cases taken parts of different animals and jumbled them together to 

 found a single species on, or to illustrate a favourite point. Tliis may have been caused 

 by his great anxiety to render his figures as perfect as possible ; and also may in part 

 be attributed to the imperfect specimens he had access to. But whatever the cause, 

 it is a system higlily objectionable at all times, and when geometrically constructed 

 fossils like the Lilies of the Ocean are the subjects, it leads to great and important 

 errors. 



One of Miller's favomite positions was the contractile power of the jiroboscis or oral 

 tube in the Actinocrinites, the only genus in wliich he knew of the existence of this 

 smgular organ, and which he represents as capable of being withdi-awn into the cup 

 containing the viscera. This is in several instances a physical impossibUity, and the 

 following simple reason wiU prove it such ; namely, that in some species the calcareous 

 plates which envelope it, are of greater solid contents than the area into which MiUer 



