IX 



were made with great care, and that the new facts recorded have 

 been fully confirmed by later observers. 



The first of the very extended series of researches relating to the 

 ** locomotor system " of the Medusa3, starfishes, and sea urchins was 

 published in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' the same year, 1876, 

 the last in 1881. These are so well known in consequence of their 

 having been placed before the public in one of the volumes of the 

 International Scientific Series, that it is sufficient to notice one or 

 two points of interest relating to them. As regards the Medusae, the 

 chief value of Romanes' numerous and varied experiments consisted 

 in the light they threw on elementary questions in physiology rela- 

 ting to excitability and conduction. As regards the arrangement and 

 distribution of the nervous system, it is interesting to note how 

 closely his inferences from experiment coincided with the anatomical 

 facts brought to light a year or two later by the researches of the 

 brothers Hertwig. In the researches on the Echinodermata, which 

 were undertaken five years later, Romanes was aided in the anato- 

 mical part of his inquiry by his friend Professor Ewart. Through- 

 out, his mode of working was the same, and was characteristic of the 

 worker. His method was not to elaborate a plan of research before- 

 hand, ascertaining what questions had been left uninvestigated by 

 previous observers, but rather to find out all he could, before he began 

 to experiment, about the phenomena which presented themselves to 

 his observation in the out-of-door study of animal life. Residing, 

 as has been said, at the entrance of Cromarty Firth, the animals that 

 he chose as the subjects of inquiry were those which most abounded 

 in its waters. In the study of starfishes and sea urchins, he began 

 by observing their mode of progression, the way in which the animals 

 recover themselves when placed in unnatural positions, the way in 

 which they encounter or escape from an attacking enemy, and then 

 proceeded by the ordinary methods of physiological experiment to 

 the investigation of the functions of the nervous system, and to the 

 determination of the way in which the movements of the animal are 

 co-ordinated. Throughout, the value of his results was enhanced by 

 the circumstance that he availed himself freely of the opportunity 

 which his position afforded him of multiplying his experiments, and 

 confirming every observation by repeating it on individuals belonging 

 to a variety of species. 



Between 1882 and 1893 Romanes offered no further contribution 

 of any moment to the Royal Society ; but in the latter year (see 

 4 Proceedings,' vol. 54, p. 333) he submitted summaries of two experi- 

 mental inquiries, one of which, on Plant Excitability, was so closely 

 related to his early physiological studies that it may be most con- 

 veniently noticed here. Its purpose was to prove that the bending of 

 plants towards any source of light is so little dependent on the quan- 



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