422 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
that we are at about as low a level as one could well imagine, since the 
central nervous system in all higher forms is a most persistent structure. 
Mr. MacBride’s views as to the affinities of the Echinoclerms to other 
animals, and among themselves, are indicated by the subjoined table : — 
Protocoelomata 
Dipleurula 
Hemichordata ( Tornaria ) 
Balanoglossus 
Cejphalodiscm 
Protochordata 
Asterids Ascidians 
Protoechinids Ophiurids Ampliioxus 
Echinids Holothurids Yertebrata 
Uintacrinus.* — Mr. E. A. Bather has made a study of this peculiar 
unstalked Crinoid. Like the other unstalked Crinoid Marsupites it is, 
he says, a forlorn foundling with not even a birthmark to reveal its 
parentage. After giving a morphological description of TJ. socicilis, in 
which he tells us the deficiencies in previous accounts are made good, 
and the errors in them corrected, he makes, with the more accurate 
knowledge thus obtained, a more useful comparison with other Crinoids. 
He finds by a process of comparison and elimination that it is most 
closely related to Dadocrinus. 
Syzygy of Crinoids. j — Mr. F. A. Bather calls attention to the fact 
that the leading writers on Crinoids use the term “ syzygy ” with more 
than one meaning. A slight acquaintance with the literature of Crinoids 
is sufficient to convince one that the writers must plead guilty to this 
charge. Even Johannes Muller, the author of the word, has used it 
both as meaning a suture, and as meaning two joints united by a suture. 
Mr. Bather proposes that the term syzygy should invariably be used in 
accordance with its original definition for an immovable sutural union, 
* Proc. Zool. Soc., 1895, pp. 974-1004 (3 pis.), 
t Zool. Anzeig., xix. (1896) pp, 57-61. 
F ixed ancest< r 
of Echinoderms 
I 
Crinoids 
