G84 DR. W. B. CAEPENTEE ON THE 8TEUCTUEE, PHYSIOLOGY, AND 



the example of Blumexbach) in the class Echinodermata ; being placed at the end of 

 the family Asteriada, in immediate sequence to Gorcjonocephala {Euryale) and Alecto 

 (Antedon). And this position they have retained in all subsequent systems of classifica- 

 tion ; the only difference of opinion having been as to the intimacy of the relationship 

 between the Crinoidea and other stellate forms of Echinodermata. 



The year 1821 constitutes an important epoch in this history ; being that of the pub- 

 lication by J. S. Miller, a German naturalist residing at Bristol, of the ' Natm-al Historj' 

 of the Crinoidea ' ; — a work wliich laid the foundation of the scientific study which the 

 group has since received on the part of various distinguished zoologists. Bringing together 

 all the forms already known, and adding to these a large number first examined by himself, 

 the author sought, in a careful comparison of their structural characters, a valid basis 

 for their systematic arrangement ; and the principles he developed have been followed 

 (with some modifications in detail) by all who have since applied themselves to the 

 same line of study, whilst the genera he created have been universally accepted as well- 

 marked natural groups. The most faulty part of his system was the nomenclature he 

 conferred on the several pieces of which the cup and arms are composed ; this being 

 drawn from the osseous skeleton of Vertebrata, to which the framework of the Crinoidea 

 has no kind of analogy. At the conclusion of his description of the Cbinoidea, Milleb 

 enters upon the consideration of their precise relationship to the several types included 

 by Lajviarck in his family Stellerida ; and after a careful comparison of their characters 

 with those of the genera Asterias, Ojphiura, and Euryale, he comes to the conclusion 

 that with neither of these have the Ceixoidea any close affinity. He then proceeds to 

 the like comparison with Comatula, the results of which, he says (p. 127), " were even 

 more favourable than the first appearances had given me reason to hope, presenting, 

 indeed, a conformity of structure almost perfect in every essential part (except the 

 column which is wanting, or at least reduced to a single plate), and exhibiting an 

 animal which would be defined with sufficient precision as a PentacTinus destitute of 

 the column." The species of Comatula investigated by Miller, though designated by 

 him C. fimbriata, is closely allied to, if not identical with, the rosacea of Lin'Ce; ; the 

 specimens of it which he examined were from MUford Haven, His description is gene- 

 rally accurate as far as it goes, but it includes little else than the skeleton. He makes 

 no mention of the true oral orifice, except to state that he could not detect in his dried 

 specimens the pentagonal mouth figured by PenJsAXT ; and it is ob\ious that, like 

 Lamaeck, he was misled by the prominence of the anal funnel into supposing it to be 

 the mouth. To Miller, then, is distinctly due the credit of having first maintained, 

 since Llhutd, upon the basis of an exact comparative appreciation of the characters 

 furnished by the skeleton, that among all the recent Stellerida, the only tjrpe which 

 bears any close correspondence to the Crixoidea is Antedon (Comatula) ; and that its 

 relationship to the Ciinoids is so intimate as to require its being included vdth them in 

 the same family. He did not, however, propose to remove this family from the Order 

 Stellerida, being ignorant of those peculiarities in its digestive and reproductive appa- 



