STARFISH persons employed and the total value of the product for the year was $9,232,984. In this production New York ranked first, Indiana second and Ohio third. The total quantity of starch manufactured was 297,803,139 pounds. Of this total, 247,051,744 pounds were made from Indian corn, and 50,751,395 pounds from all other materials. The average value per pound of Indian corn starch was 2.5 cents, and the average value of all other starches was 3.8 cents per pound. Starfish, any echinoderm of the group Asteroidea (see ECHINODERMATA), in which a pentagonal disk forms the central body, whence radiate five or more pointed arms, containing prolongations of the stomach, as well as digestive glands, reproductive organs, etc. The mouth is on the inferior surface of the disk, and the vent (when one exists) is on the upper surface. The exoskeleton consists of a mosaic of limy plates united and covered by a leathery, usually reddish-brown skin, forming a pliant armor. The plates of the disk are similar to those of the "cup" of crinoids (q.v.) and similar echinoderms. Those of the arms form along the floor a groove carrying the ambulacral water-vessels and tube-feet. The exterior of the plates, except in the ambulacral grooves, is studded with tubercles, each bearing a spine, giving the starfish a generally spiny appearance. Studding the skin among the spines are numerous branchial papillæ and the usually threejawed, flexible-stalked pedicellariæ, which continually bend about and by their snapping pick up and remove accumulated waste matter from the respiratory surface of the animal. So independently do they act that for many years they were considered to be parasites. The alimentary canal is simple with a pair of large cæcal digestive glands reaching into each arm. The nervous, blood, and water-vascular systems conform to the plan described in the article ECHINODERMATA. Distinct eye-spots are present at the tips of the rays in most species, the large orange-colored spot which is popularly called the "eye" of the starfish being in reality the madreporic plate, by means of which water is admitted to the ambulacral system. In starfishes the sexes are usually separated and the eggs fertilized in the water. Development takes place with a metamorphosis, the larval stage being free-swimming, provided with ciliated bands and processes, and known as the bipinnaria. The body of the young starfish forms within the body of the larva, only a small portion of which develops directly into the starfish, the remainder being simply absorbed to nourish it. onward. Locomotion is accomplished by means of the thousands of tube-feet arranged in double rows on the under side of each arm. These successively extend, attach themselves, contract, let go, and reach forward again, hundreds acting together to draw the body slowly but continuously The individual feet are extended by means of water forced into them by the contraction of the ampullæ, with which each is provided, and contracted by their own musculature, which forces the water back into the now relaxed ampulla, the supply of water in any part being regulated through the madreporic plate and the system of canals and polian vesicles. Be sides the sexual mode of reproduction starfishes possess the power of regenerating lost parts developed to so great a degree that it amounts to asexual reproduction. When handled or injured they will often deliberately, or, more properly speaking, automatically, cast off an arm or even all of the arms close to the base. Not only will the disk regenerate any number or all of its arms when lost, but in some cases the single arms will develop new disks, thus producing several individuals from one. Experimental cuttings of starfishes has shown how bifurcated or extra arms may be produced. As their only cod family and as it seems probable that one or natural enemies are bottom feeding fishes of the more arms could thus often escape capture, this capacity for regeneration, combined with their ably accounts for the surpassing numbers in tenacity of life and enormous fecundity, probwhich they sometimes occur. All starfishes are marine, and most of them live in comparatively shallow water, though a few extend to great and many to moderate depths. As fossils they occur in most formaless numerous than the sea-urchins, being less tions from the Cambrian upward, but are much While the number of arms is generally five or well adapted by their structure for preservation. lar numbers as 13 in Solaster, 9 to 13 in Brissome multiple of five, some genera bear irreguinga, or upwards of 20 in Heliaster, while a few, nearly without trace of arms. as Culcita and Asteriscus, are pentagonal and for the most part upon mollusks, including such large bivalves as oysters. The manner in which is very remarkable. By means of the suckers they accomplish this apparently impossible feat Starfishes are voracious creatures which feed at the ends of the tube-feet the starfish attaches part of its arms to each valve of the oyster and by a steady continuous traction sooner or later so weakens the adductor muscle of the latter that the valves gape open. As the mouth is too small to admit the body of the oyster the stomach is protruded and, enwrapping its prey, the soft body is gradually sucked through the mouth. Small gastropods may be taken into the mouth entire. Many species of starfishes live on the bottom in vast shoals and, although sluggish creatures, they often migrate to new feeding grounds, moving over the ground steadily in a definite direction. The best-known starfishes of our Atlantic shores are the Asteracanthion vulgaris and A. forbesii, the former chiefly north, the latter south of Cape Cod, though both are found in Vineyard Sound and the neighboring waters. They are nearly alike, reach a diameter of 12 or 15 inches and extend from low water to considerable depths. Both species congregate in great numbers on mussel and oyster beds, often committing great havoc on the latter. They are removed from the latter by the boat load by means of dredges and tangles and cast ashore. Formerly the oystermen broke them into pieces, which were cast into the water in expectation of killing them, with the result that their numbers were increased greatly. The smooth starfish (Cribrella sanguinolenta) is a very pretty small shallow water species with five long, round, nearly smooth arms and a color which varies from purple to yellow and pink. It is most STARGARD abundant north of Cape Cod and is remarkable in utilizing the sides of the mouth as a brood pouch in which the young are carried. Echinaster sentus is a related southern species with Croosaster pappossus is rough spinous arms. common in a few fathoms of water on the New It has a very broad body disk England coast. and flattish arms, which vary from 12 to 15 in number. Luidia clathrata and Astropecten articularis are flat, very brittle, five-rayed starfishes with the upper surface very densely covered with small spines and the arms margined with large plates and a fringe of spines. Both occur on the South Atlantic coasts, occasionally as far north as New Jersey. Many interesting species are dredged in deeper water or are sometimes thrown ashore during storms, and others occur in the Gulf of Mexico in shallow as well as deep water. One of these is the massive, heavilyarmored, rigid Pentaceros reticularis, the species commonly sold in shell shops at the seaside resorts, and the largest starfish of the Atlantic coast. The Pacific coast fauna is much richer and more varied, among the species being the gigantic Asterias giganteus, over two feet in diameter and six-rayed, the ten-rayed Solaster decemradiata, the flat, granulated, bright-red Mediaster æqualis, the thick, flat, pentagonal, great-spined Nidorella armata, and the nearly armless and very small Asterina miniata. Consult: Agassiz, North American Starfishes, Memoirs Mus. Comp. Zool. (Cambridge, 1877); Sladen, Asteroidea of the Challenger Expedition' (London, 1889); Lankester, Treatise on Zoology, Pt. III. (London, 1900); Lockington, Standard Natural History, Vol. J. PERCY MOORE, I. Boston, 1884). University of Pennsylvania. Stargard, stär'gärt, Germany, Prussia, in Stark, John, American officer: b. London- Starkey, stär'ki, Thomas Alfred, American Starling, a field-bird of the family Sturnidæ, Starnina, Gherardo, gä-rär'dō stär-ne'nä, After was a pupil of Antonio Veneziano. Italian painter: b. Florence 1354; d. 1407. He painting the history of Saint Nicholas and Saint Anthony, on the ceiling of the Casteilani chapel sons to take refuge in Spain. Here he worked in Santa Croce, he was forced for political reafor the king and others, returning to Italy with STARNOSED MOLE-STARS considerable wealth (1387). He made many frescoes but nothing remains save the 'Death of Saint Jerome' in Santa Maria del Carmine. Starnosed Mole. See MOLE. Starovertz. See RELIGIOUS SECTS. Starr, stär, Frederick, American anthropologist: b. Auburn, N. Y., 2 Sept. 1858. He was graduated from Lafayette College in 1882 and from 1889-91 was in charge of the department of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History. Later he made extensive travels in Mexico making special studies in anthropology and ethnography. He is editor of the Anthropological Series, and has published "Some First Steps in Human Progress) (1895); American Indians' (1899); 'Indians of Southern Mexico) (1899); Strange People' (1900); etc. Starr, Moses Allen, American neurologist: b. Brooklyn, N. Y., 16 May 1854. He was graduated from Princeton University in 1876 and received his medical degree from Columbia University in 1880. He is editor of the Psycholog ical Review and Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, and has published Familiar Forms of Nervous Disease (1893); 'Brain Surgery) (1895); Atlas of Nerve Cells) (1897), and lectures on 'Diseases of the Mind' (1898); and 'Diseases of the Nervous System) (1899). Starry Cross, Order of. See ORDERS, ROYAL. Stars, a designation familiarly applied to all the heavenly bodies which look like points of light. This designation includes four of the planets, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. In scientific language the term is applied only to those bodies which seem fixed on the celestial sphere, and are therefore termed fixed stars. These are immense incandescent bodies, scattered through the immensities of space at distances which beggar all our conceptions. In accordance with the general plan of the present work, we begin with a study of the stars as they appear to us, and then pass to the consideration of their actual constitution and situation in space. We shall therefore suppose the reader to scan the heavens at night while we point out certain features of the scene of grandeur then presented to his vision. which we receive from a star by its magnitude. The magnitudes of stars are now designated to tenths, or, to give greater precision, even to hundredths of a magnitude. Thus we have stars of magnitudes 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, etc. These numbers are arranged on a diminishing scale of light, so that a difference of one magnitude corresponds to the multiplication or division of light by a number very near 2.5, or, more exactly, the number whose logarithm is 0.4. This means that a star of magnitude 3.0 is about two and a half times as bright as one of magnitude 4.0; this again about two and a half times as bright as one of magnitude 5.0, etc. The exact scale is such that a star of the first magnitude is precisely 100 times as bright as one of the sixth, while the latter is 100 times as bright as one of the eleventh, so that an increase of five units in the scale of magnitude corresponds to a division of the light by 100. Careful examination will also show that the stars of each magnitude are several times as numerous as those of the brighter magnitudes. There are three or four times as many stars of the fourth magnitude as of the third; three or four times as many of the fifth as of the fourth and so on in nearly geometrical progression. But when we pass to the stars invisible to the naked eye, the progression is not so rapid. Yet its cominon ratio does not fall below 2 at any point yet known. The result is that the stars of the fainter magnitudes are to be counted by millions. The faintest stars visible in the largest telescopes are about of magnitude 16 or 17. Another familiar feature of the sky is that the stars are not scattered uniformly, but that the brighter ones appear to be collected to a greater or less extent into constellations. There is, however, no precise dividing line between one constellation and another. The irregularity is such that the number of constellations is somewhat arbitrary. The fainter the stars the less marked is the division into constellations. The telescopic stars cannot be divided into constellations at all. See CONSTELLATIONS. Careful observation shows that the stars differ slightly in color. It is true that the colors are less marked than those of natural objects, there being no such red as the ruby, and no such bright green as the emerald among the stars. But there is a regular gradation from a yellowish red through white, to a well-marked, bluish tint. These differences of color are supposed to indidifferent degrees of temperature of the stars, or different periods in their growth and development. The first feature to be noticed is the great diversity in the brightness of the stars, or, to use a technical expression, in their magnitudes. These range all the way from that of the bright-cate est stars down to the point of invisibility to the naked eye. The smallest telescope will show scores of stars too faint to be seen without its aid, and the greater the power of the instrument, the greater the number that will be brought into view, without any limit yet known. The ancient astronomers divided the stars into six orders of magnitude, called the first, second, etc. The 15 or 20 brighter stars were classified as of the first magnitude, those a grade below them as of the second, and so on, until they came to the sixth, which comprised the faintest stars visible to the unaided eye. All these stars are now called lucid; fainter ones telescopic. In modern times the preceding system of magnitudes has not only been extended to the telescopic stars, but has been arranged on a plan which gives greater precision, and enables us to designate the exact measure of the light Number of Stars.- The whole number of stars in the heavens, visible to the naked eye, is about 5,000. As one-half of these are necessarily below the horizon at any one time, it follows that not more than 2,500 can be seen at once. But this is greater than the actual number visible under ordinary conditions, because small stars near the horizon are rendered dim or invisible by the thickness of the air through which we see them. Practically, it is not likely that more than 2,000 stars can ever be seen at once by the best eye, unless at elevated points where the air is very clear down to the horizon. Up to the present time it has been impossible to make anything like an enumeration of the telescopic stars, because, as we have already said, every increase in the power of the telescope |