Although the nervous connections on which the spines and
pedicellariæ depend for their function of localizing and closing
round a seat of stimulation are thus shown to be completely destroyed
by injury of the external plexus, other nervous connections, upon
which another function of the spines depends, are not in the smallest
degree impaired by such injury. The other function to which I allude
is that which brings about the general co-ordinated action of all
the spines for the purposes of locomotion. That this function is not
impaired by injury of the external plexus is proved by the fact that
if the area within a closed line of injury on the surface of the
shell be strongly irritated, all the spines over the whole surface
begin to manifest their peculiar bristling movements, and by this
co-ordinated action rapidly move the animal in a straight line of
escape from the source of irritation; the injury to the external
plexus, although completely separating the spines enclosed by it
from their neighbouring spines as regards what may be called their
local function of seizing the instrument of stimulation, nevertheless
leaves them in undisturbed connection with all the other spines in
the organism as regards what may be called their universal function
of locomotion.
Evidently, therefore, this more universal function must depend
upon some other set of nervous connections; and experiment shows
that these are distributed over all the _internal_ surface of the
shell. Our mode of experimenting was to divide the animal into two
hemispheres, remove all the internal organs of both hemispheres
(these operations producing no impairment of any of the functions of
the pedicels, spines, or pedicellariæ), and then to paint with strong
acid the inside of the shell--completely washing out the acid after
about a quarter of a minute's exposure. The results of a number of
experiments conducted on this method may be thus epitomized:--
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