Translation of the original German introduction by Ernst Haeckel:
Phylum of Echinoderma (Sterntiere); - class of Monorchonia (Noncinten); - subclass of Thuroidea or Holothuria (Gurkensterne or Seegurken)
Sea cucumber (variously called ‘cucumber stars’ or ‘sea roller’, Holothuria or Thuroidea) is among of the five still living classes of Echinoderma the one most closely related to the phylum of all Echinoderma (Amphoridea or Urnensterne); like them they possess only one pair of sexual glands while the other four living classes carry five pairs. On the outer cover, too, the characteristic five-radial structure of the Echinoderma body is less pronounced in Holothuria; they much more resemble a snake or a worm; others look like a roller or a cucumber. The body is elongated, very muscular and thus capable of strong contraction and expansion. Numerous flexible small feet protrude from the skin, either regularly placed in five band-like rows or irregularly distributed all over the surface (fig. 1 and 2). The anus is at the rear end of the elongated body, the mouth is found at the front end, surrounded by a corona of tentacles. These antennae or capturing arms are shaped like a branched-off tree (fig. 1) or like a shell (fig. 2). Masses of microscopical lime particles of delicate and diverse shapes, are spread all over the sturdy, coriaceous skin of Holothuria (fig. 8-22). Five-radial animals do not directly generate out of the eggs of sea cucumber, rather bilaterally structured larva (Aurikularia, fig. 3 and 4); larva transforms in a most peculiar metamorphosis into the adult, sexually mature Thuroidea (fig. 5 and 6).
Translation by VR Translators Bangalore
We've scanned the original lithography at 1200dpi on the Epson A3 scanner of A3 scanner huren. You can download a 400dpi JPEG here.