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 ECHEGARAY —ECHINODERMATA 617 ing list of Rabbinic expressions which follows justifies this matics to the drama : no writer excels him in artful conjudgment (Schechter and Taylor, pp. 33, 34). Ben Sira’s struction, in the arrangement of dramatic scenes, in mere book is an echo of books greater than itself. (w. e. b.) theatrical technique, in the focussing of attention on his chief personages. These are valuable gifts in their way, Echegaray y Eizaguirre, Jose (1833- and it is just to say that Echegaray has a singularly power), Spanish mathematician, statesman, and dramatist, ful, gloomy imagination, which is momentarily impressive. was born at Madrid in March 1833, and was educated at In the drawing of character, in the invention of felicitous the grammar school of Murcia, whence he proceeded to the phrase, in the contrivance of verbal music, he is deficient. Escuela de Caminos at the capital. His exemplary dili- He alternates between the use of verse and prose; and this gence and unusual mathematical capacity were soon noticed. hesitancy in choosing a medium of expression is amply In 1853 he passed out at the head of the list of engineers, justified, for the writer’s prose is not more distinguished and, after a brief practical experience at Almeria and than his verse. These serious shortcomings may explain Granada, was appointed professor of pure and applied the diminution of his vogue in Spain ; they will certainly mathematics in the school where he had lately been a tell against him in the estimate of posterity. pupil. His Problemas de geometria analitica (1865) and Teorias modernas de la fisica unidad de las fuerzas maEchinodermata ■—Since the article on Echinoteriales (1867) are said to be esteemed by competent judges. derms in the 9 th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica He became a member of the Society of Political Economy, was published, our knowledge of this phylum of the helped to found La Revista, and took a prominent part animal kingdom has greatly increased, and our views on in propagating Free Trade doctrines in the press and on many important points have correspondingly changed. the platform. He was clearly marked out for office, and In 1877 the researches of Johannes Muller formed the when the popular movement of 1868 overthrew the groundwork of scientific conceptions of the group, and monarchy, he resigned his post for a place in the revolu- they had thus far been confirmed rather than added to. tionary cabinet. Between 1867 and 1874 he acted as The distinction of Echinoderms from such radiate animals Minister of Education and of Finance; upon the restora- as jelly-fish and corals (see Ccelentera), by their postion of the Bourbon dynasty he withdrew from politics, and session of a body-cavity (“coelom”) distinct from the won a new reputation as a dramatist. As early as 1867 he gut, was fully realized ; while their severance from the wrote La hija natural, which was rejected, and remained worms (especially Gephyrea), with which some Echinounknown till 1877, when it appeared with the title of derms were long confused, had been necessitated by the Para tal culpa tal pena. Another play, La ultima noche, recognition in all of a radial symmetry, impressed on the also written in 1867, was produced in 1875 ; but in the original bilateral symmetry of the larva through the latter year Echegaray was already accepted as the success- growth of a special division of the coelom, known as the ful author of El Libro talonario, played at the Teatro de “hydrocoel,” and giving rise to a set of water-bearing Apolo on 18th February 1874, under the transparent canals—the water-vascular or ambulacral system. There pseudonym of Jorge Hayaseca. Later in the same year was also sufficient comprehension of the differences between Echegaray won a popular triumph with La Esposa del the main classes of Echinoderms—the sea-urchins or vengador, in which the good and bad qualities—the clever Echinoidea, the starfish or Asteroidea, the brittle-stars and stagecraft and unbridled extravagance—of his later work their allies known as Ophiuroidea, the worm-like Holoare clearly noticeable. From 1874 onwards he has written, thurians, the feather-stars and sea-lilies called Crinoidea, with varying success, a prodigious number of plays. with their extinct relatives the sac-like Cystidea, the budAmong the most favourable specimens of his talent may be formed Blastoidea, and the flattened Edrioasteroidea— mentioned En el puno de la espada (1875); 0 locura 6 while within the larger of these classes, such as Echinoidea santidad (1877), which has been translated into Swedish and Crinoidea, fair working classifications had been estaband Italian ; En el seno de la muerte (1879), of which there lished. But the study that should elucidate the fundaexists an admirable German version by Fastenrath. El mental similarities or homologies between the several gran Galeoto (1881), perhaps the best of Echegaray’s plays classes, and should suggest the relations of the Echinoin conception and execution, has been translated into dermata to other phyla, had scarcely begun. Indeed, the several languages, and still holds the stage. The humorous time was not ripe for such discussions, still less for the proverb, i Piensa mol y acertards ? exemplifies the author’s tracing of lines of descent and their embodiment in a limitations, but the attempt is interesting as an instance of genealogical classification. Since then exploring expediambitious versatility. His susceptibility to new ideas is tions have made known a host of new genera, often illustrated in such pieces as El hijo de Don Juan (1892) exhibiting unfamiliar types of structure. and El loco Dios (1900) : both of these plainly prove a close Among these the abyssal starfish and holothurians described by reading of Ibsen, and El loco Dios more especially might be bladen and Theel respectively, in the Report of the 11 Challenner,, taken for an unintentional parody of Ibsen’s symbolism. Expedition, are most notable. The sea-urchins, ophiuroids and Confirmatory signs of a new departure are noticeable in crinoids also have yielded many important novelties to A. Agassiz {Challenger Blake, and Albatross Expeditions), Lyman {Challenger), Mariana (1892), in Mancha que limpia (1895), and in bladen ( Astrophiura, ’ Ann. Mag. Mat. Hist., 1879), Bell (nummany other productions. Echegaray has succeeded to the erous papers in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist, and in Proc. Zool. Aoc. literary inheritance of Lopez de Ayala and of Tamayo ft. Vemev {Travailleur and Talisman,Cape Horn,and Monaco Expey Bans ; and though he possesses neither the poetic imagina- ditions), r. H. Carpenter {Challenger Reports), and others. The of these authors, as well as those of Loven tion of the first nor the instinctive tact of the second, it anatomica! researches is impossible to deny that he has reached a larger audience a i nii ourtalcsia ” and “Echinologica,” published by the Swedish fSelenCe Ludwi iQ?of Hamann tT° ^ g der {MorphologischeStudien, 1877than either. Hot merely in Spain, but in every land 1882), {Histologie Echinodermen, Jena,Leipzig, 1883-1889), where Spanish is spoken, and in cities as remote from Cuenot (“Etudes morphologiques,” Arch. Biol., 1891, and papers therein referred to), Duncan (“ Revision of the Echinoidea,” Journ. Madrid as Munich and Stockholm, he has met with an Linn. Soc., 1890), Prouho (“Sur Dorocidaris,” Arch. Zool. Exper., appreciation incomparably beyond that accorded to any 1888), and many more, need only be mentioned to recall the great other Spanish dramatist of the 19th century. But it advance that has been made. In physiology may be instanced W. would be more than usually rash to prophesy that this B. Carpenter’s proof of the nervous nature of the chambered organ axial cords of crinoids {Proc. Boy. Soc., 1884), the researches of exceptional popularity will endure. There have been signs and Durham {Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., 1891) and others into the wander- • of a reaction in Spain itself. Echegaray applies his mathe- ing cells of the body-cavity, and the study of the deposition of the S. III.— 78