358 Miscellaneous. 
could not see the ducks, although the water was covered with 
them. 
’ With the assistance of the coloured woman I got home, when I 
found my daughter similarly affected and unable to walk. Neither 
Mrs. Simms (the visitor) nor my cook were affected, which makes 
me know it was the oysters. The sickness and loss of vision gra- 
dually left us after drinking a cup of strong coffee. I am confident 
the death of the fish is caused by the discharge of poisonous gases 
from the bottom of the sea. 
Mr. Williams, of Point Pinellas, thinks the mortality is “ caused 
by a black scum on the water resembling soot,” and Mr. Spencer, of 
the Tampa Tribune, says that “the water where the fish are 
dying looks black and slimy ;” and he ascribes this to the fall of an 
unusual amount of rain, the water of which, “ becoming impreg- 
nated with the poison of decaying vegetation, is poured into the bay 
in unusual quantities and poisons the fish.” Both these gentlemen 
allude to the unwholesomeness of the oysters ; and the latter says, 
“the oyster-saloons here [Tampa] were obliged to close, as the 
oysters came near killing several people.” According to MM. For- 
garty and Whittaker, “the poisoned water runs in streaks,” so 
that, of three smacks fishing in company, “two lost all their fish, 
while one lost none, the vessels being only a few hundred yards 
apart.” —Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., Sept. 1883, pp. 105, 107. 
On the Organization of the Crinoidea. 
By M. E. Perrier. 
In the course of investigations which already date from several 
years ago, I was led to results with regard to the organization of 
the arms of the Comatule differing considerably from those which 
were announced by William Carpenter, and which have been since 
observed and variously interpreted by Herbert Carpenter, Greef, 
Tauber, Ludwig, and some other observers. In consequence of the 
peculiar facilities for study which they presented I had made my 
investigations principally upon very young individuals, or upon 
arms in process of regeneration ; it was, on the contrary, upon adult 
individuals, and often in full production, that the researches of the 
anatomists just cited were made. Hence it was probable that the 
divergences which existed between my original results and theirs 
might be due to the fact that the organization of the arms of Coma- 
tule undergoes important modifications with age. On the other 
hand, there are also serious divergences between the conclusions at 
which the various observers have arrived; and the publications of 
Ludwig have recently diffused ideas with respect to the Echino- 
derms which require to be rectified upon many points, ideas which 
we believe we have demonstrated to be incorrect with regard to the 
circulatory apparatus of the Urchins and Starfishes, and which 
would render any homology very difficult to establish in the group 
Echinodermata, if we accepted them for the Crinoids. This is 
