and fingers (see Pl. 47, figs. 1, 2, 3. and Pl. 50, figs. 1, 2, 3.,) the surface of each bone articulates with that adjacent to it, with the most perfect regularity and nicety of adjustment. So exact, and methodical is this arrangement, even to the extremity of its minutest tentacula, that it is just as improbable, that the metals which compose the wheels of a chronometer should for themselves have calculated and arranged the form and number of the teeth of each respective wheel, and that these wheels should have placed themselves in the precise position, fitted to attain the end resulting from the combined action of them all, as for the successive hundreds and thousands of little bones that compose an Encrinite, to have arranged themselves, in a position subordinate to the end produced by the combined effect of their united Mechanism; each acting its peculiar part in harmonious subordination to the rest, and all conjointly producing a result which no single series of them acting separately, could possibly have effected.
In Pl. 50 I have selected from Goldfuss, Parkinson, and Miller, details of the structure of the body and upper extremities of Encrinites Moniliformis, or Lily Encrinite, in which the component parts are indicated by letters, explained in the annexed note; and I must refer my readers to these authors for minute descriptions of the individual forms and uses of each successive series of plates.[1]
- ↑ "On the summit of the vertebral column are placed successive series of little bones, see Pl. 50, Fig. 4, which from their position and uses may be termed the Pelvis E, Scapula H, Costal F, forming (with the pectoral and capital plates) a kind of sub-globular body (see Pl. 48. Pl. 49. Fig. 1. Pl. 50, Figs. 1, 2,) having the mouth in its centre and containing the viscera and stomach of the animal, from which the nourishing fluids were admitted to an alimentary cavity within the column, and also carried to the arms and tentaculated fingers." From the Scapula (H) proceeded the five arms, (Pl. 50, Fig. 1, K) which, as they advanced, subdivided into hands (M) and fingers (N) terminating in minute tentacula (Pl. 50. Figs. 2, 3,) the number of which extended to many thousands. These hands and lingers are represented as closed, or nearly
