296 PROFESSOR MARSHALL. 



madreporic plate by a number of ciliated openings, we have, quite 

 apart from the entirely exceptional features of the nervous system, a 

 list of characters, which could be very easily added to, which mark off 

 the Crinoids as a group widely separate from the other Echinoderms. 



When we bear in mind that in a number of these points the Crinoid 

 condition is not only not a primitive one, but a very highly specialised 

 one, the gap becomes wider still. 



I do not propose at present to pursue farther this point, which has 

 recently been noticed by both the Carpenters, and will close my paper 

 by venturing to call attention to the great importance of supplementing 

 morphological and histological inquiries by direct experimental investi- 

 gations. In this age of specialisation there is a very real danger of 

 men confining their attention too exclusively to one side of the problems 

 they attack, to the entire neglect of others, which are not only of equal 

 importance, but which would in many cases yield them far more ready 

 clues. 



Comparative physiology is a phrase which has become well-nigh 

 extinct ; but it is the name of a very real and very necessary science, 

 which only requires better opportunities for development, such as we 

 hope shortly to see forthcoming in this country, in order to yield results 

 of first-rate importance to morphologists and physiologists alike. 



