46 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vou. XXXII 
as all know, a modified one, and it was, therefore, my earnest 
desire that the results obtained by the examination of this form 
should be tested by a comparison with the development of a 
normal pelagic larva. And it was, therefore, with considerable 
pleasure that I awaited the publication of Dr. Goto’s researches. 
Speaking broadly, aremarkable similarity is disclosed between 
the two types of development. Some of Goto’s figures are 
almost identical with those which I have already published. I 
shall first, therefore, sketch the general scope of the paper, and 
then discuss the principal points of difference between Dr. Goto 
and myself. 
The paper commences with a description of a young bipin- 
naria, practically quite bilaterally symmetrical, lettered by Goto 
as stage B, the stages considered in the paper being denoted 
B, C, D, E, F, G, H. [I assume, although Dr. Goto does not say 
so, that the lettering has been chosen to correspond as far as 
possible with the lettering of the stages of Asterina gibbosa 
given by me; stages Æ, F, G, and H appear to be identical in the 
two cases, and unless this were so, I utterly fail to grasp why 
Dr. Goto calls the first stage B. It is to be desired that this 
should be explicitly stated, since it is undesirable to introduce 
an independent lettering with every new species examined.] 
The changes in external form are then carefully explained ; the 
plane of the developing disk of the starfish is at first par- 
allel to the sagittal plane of the larva; but as development pro- 
ceeds it is shifted backwards until it occupies the posterior pole 
of the larva, and is then perpendicular to both the sagittal and 
frontal planes — so that the direction right to left in the larva is 
parallel to the disk, as well as the direction dorsal to ventral. 
As development proceeds, three “ brachiolar” arms are de- 
veloped on the przoral lobe surrounding a thickened patch 
of ectoderm, and so the bipinnaria becomes a _ brachiolaria. 
Dr. Goto was unable to observe any fixation during the meta- 
morphosis, such as has been seen by Bury (95) in the case of 
Asterias rubens, and by myself in Asterina gibbosa ('96). 
_ As in the case of Asterina gibbosa, and contrary to what was 
~ believed to take place in the case of bipinnaria, both the larval 
= gesophagus and the larval rectum atrophy ; — the przoral lobe 
