The Echinodermata of Jhew (Brunsioick. 13 
•easily found, with powers of slow but easily-watched locomo- 
tion, they attract more attention than the duller-colored and 
more sluggish, though more useful Mollusca, or the more 
active and shyer Crustacea. 
To the teacher there is no group of marine animals which 
can be made of greater use for teaching purposes. Not only 
are they interesting for the reasons we have already men- 
tioned, but simply as objects of practical study they possess 
many advantages. Many of them are easily collected and 
preserved, and prepared specimens may be made to show 
more of the internal anatomy than is possible with any other 
group. Their comparative simplicity of structure and abund- 
ance of supporting hard parts make many of them better 
subjects for dissection than the Mollusca or Crustacea, and 
their larger size gives them an advantage over the Insecta. 
They are particularly well adapted, too, for the illustration 
of many general zoological principles. The habits of the 
shore forms can be quite easily watched and studied, either 
upon the shore (which is the best way], or in glass vessels in 
the school-room. Many simple and harmless experiments 
may be tried upon them which will teach most valuable 
lessons, not about Echinodermata alone, but about animal 
life in general. The mind of a pupil wisely led to observe 
forms as low as these, will be grasping, though altogether 
unconsciously, a truer perception of what Nature really is, 
and a broader sympathy with her workings in the world about 
him. Seeing in these simple creatures, so different from 
what he has been accustomed to associate with the name 
animal, characteristics in common with the higher animals, 
including himself, he must in his mind link closer together 
what before seemed far apart, must include in one category 
what before seemed different in kind, and thus will come a 
step nearer to that conception, grand and ennobling when 
fully grasped, the true basis of all scientific knowledge, — the 
fundamental unity of Nature. 
That the proper kind of study of animals and plants 
affords the best means that we have of arousing and exer- 
cising powers of observation and inductive reasoning, is too 
