ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES ACT 



2783 



ECHINOIDEA 



Ecclesiastical Titles Act. Act 



passed by the British Parliament 

 in 1851. It was a reply to the 

 brief of Pope Pius IX which re- 

 stored the Roman Catholic hier- 

 archy in England, making West- 

 minster an archbishopric and select- 

 ing various towns, not occupied by 

 Anglican bishops, as new seats for 

 the episcopate. ', In response to 

 Protestant political agitation Lord 

 John Russell introduced the bill, 

 which was passed into law. The 

 Act was from the first a dead letter, 

 and was repealed in 1871. 



Ecclesiasticus. Name in the 

 Vulgate of one of the most impor- 

 tant of the O.T. Apocrypha, which 

 in the Greek version is called the 

 " Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach." 

 The book was called Ecclesiasticus 

 ("belonging to the Church") be- 

 cause, though not canonical, it was 

 considered suitable for use in the 

 public worship of the Western 

 Church. By the decree of the 

 Council of Trent it was declared a 

 canonical book of the O.T. in the 

 Roman Catholic Church. 



It was originally written in He- 

 brew, between about 190 and 170 

 B.C., by Jesus the son of Sirach, and 

 was translated into Greek soon 

 after 130 B.C. by a grandson of the 

 same name. The Hebrew text was 

 lost until 1896, when Mrs. Agnes 

 Lewis discovered a fragment in 

 Palestine. Subsequently other 

 fragments came to light, and now 

 the greater part of the work may 

 be read in Hebrew. The book be- 

 longs to a class of Hebrew litera- 

 ture known as Wisdom Literature. 

 The author gathers up ethical pro- 

 verbs, precepts, and wise sayings 

 concerning a great variety of mat- 

 ters in the conduct of life. See 

 Apocrypha, 



Ecclesiazusae. Comedy of Ari- 

 stophanes, produced 392 B.C. It 

 represents the women of Athens as 

 controllers of public affairs and 

 founders of a socialistic state in 

 which property and husbands were 

 held in common, as in Plato's re- 

 public. The title means Women in 

 the ecclesia (general assembly). 



Ecclesiology "(Gr. ekklesia, 

 church, assembly ; logos, dis- 

 course). Science treating of the or- 

 ganization and development of 

 Christianity and of ecclesiastical 

 architecture and decoration, espec- 

 ially in regard to their liturgical sig- 

 nificance. See Christianity; Church. 



Echegaray y Eizaguirre, Jos 

 (1832-1916). Spanish dramatist, 

 poet, and politician. He was born 

 at Madrid, and educated at its uni- 

 versity. Before entering politics, 

 1868, he was a teacher of mathe- 

 matics. He held office in the 

 Radical-Monarchist government of 

 1872-73, as minister of education, 



and in 1874 and 1905-6 was mini- 

 ster of finance. Hiss versatility was 

 extraordinary, and he was a direc- 

 tor of commercial companies, as 

 well as a philosopher and poet. In 

 1904 he won the Nobel Prize for 

 literature. His dramas, numbering 

 over eighty, have been translated 

 into most European languages. He 

 is regarded as 

 the founder of 

 the new school 

 of Spanish dra- 

 matists. His 

 plays include 

 Mariana, 1893, 

 adapted in 

 English, 1897, 

 at the Court, 

 and revived, 

 with Mrs. 

 Patrick Camp- 

 bell in the title-rdle, at the Royalty, 

 1901 ; El Gran Galeoto, 1881, pro- 

 duced in London, 1889, under the 

 title of Calumny. He died Sept. 

 16, 1916. 



Echelon (Fr., round of a ladder). 

 Military term. Troops are said to 

 be in echelon formation when the 

 units are all facing in the same di- 

 rection, are in parallel rows with 

 intervals between their flanks, and 

 units to the rear are on the flank of 

 those in front of them. Battle-ships 

 are in echelon when advancing in 

 V formation, the apex leading. 



Echidna (Gr.-Lat., viper). Spiny 

 ant-eater of Australia and New 

 Guinea, of which there are two 

 species, the five-toed and the three- 



Jose Echegaray y 



Eizaguirre, 

 Spanish dramatist 



mammal 



toed. They are egg-laying (Mono- 

 tremata). The back of the head and 

 body is covered with short spines, 

 like porcupine quills, and the head 

 is provided with a slender beak. In 

 the breeding season the female lays 

 a single egg, which is incubated in 

 a pouch on the underside of the 

 body. The echidna and the orni- 

 thorhynchus are the only mammals 

 that have a cloaca (q.v.). 



Echinoderma (Gr. echinos, 

 hedgehog ; derma, skin). Phyla 

 or sub-kingdom of invertebrate 

 marine animals. They comprise 

 the feather-stars (Crinoidea), star- 

 fishes (Asteroidea), brittle-stars 

 (Ophiuroidea), sea-urchins (Echi- 

 noidea), and sea-cucumbers (Holo- 

 thurioidea) ; certain other orders 

 are represented only by fossils. 

 They are organized on a five- 



parted symmetrical plan, though 

 this is not at once evident in some 

 of the sea-cucumbers. The skeleton 

 consists of a soft integument in 

 which is deposited carbonate of 

 lime in the form of plates, bars, or 

 spicules. Although there is no dis- 

 tinct head, there is a mouth on the 

 underside, except in the sea-cu- 

 cumbers, where it is placed at one 

 of the two extremities. The ali- 

 mentary canal is separated from 

 the general body cavity. 



The nervous system, which is not 

 of a high grade, has its principal 

 seat in a five -angled ring around 

 the gullet, from which branches 

 radiate in all directions. What 

 was formerly considered to be a 

 heart is now known to be the centre 

 of the generative system. There is 

 no heart ; but there is a system by 

 which the products of digestion are 

 circulated. The most remarkable 

 feature of echinoderm organization 

 is the series of water-vessels 

 known as the ambulacral system, 

 from its function of supply ing hy- 

 draulic power for locomotion. 



The outer surface of the echino- 

 derms varies in the several orders. 

 In the sand-stars and brittle-stars 

 it consists of overlapping plates 

 which allow the rays to be thrown 

 into horizontal curves. In the 

 common star-fish and its near allies 

 it is studded with hard bosses and 

 short spines ; and in the sea- 

 urchins it is armed with long or 

 short spines which move on ball- 

 and-socket joints. There are also 

 sense organs of varying character 

 in the different groups. The star- 

 fishes have rudimentary eyes at 

 the tips of the rays. 



The echinoderma are of the 

 widest distribution, being found in 

 all the seas, at all depths. They are 

 a very ancient group, for their 

 fossil remains are found in the 

 rocks as far back as the Ordovician 

 period. 



Echinoidea (Gr. echinos, hedge- 

 hog ; eidos, form). Order of echino- 

 derma containing the sea-urchins. 

 They include regular urchins, of 

 which the somewhat spherical com- 

 mon sea-urchin (Echimts e-sculentus) 

 of Bri tain' s rocky coasts is a familiar 

 example; the oval heart-urchins 

 (Spatangus) of the sandy shores; 

 and the depressed cake -urchins 

 (Clypeaster) which are not repre- 

 sented in British waters. 



The common sea-urchin has be- 

 neath its coat of about 4,000 brist- 

 ling spines a thin stony box com- 

 posed of nearly 600 five-sided 

 plates, placed edge to edge. 

 Through the minute perforations 

 issue the delicate sucker tubes. 

 Certain plates bear polished bosses 

 upon which the spines turn in any 

 direction. Each tapering spine has 



