Section 6. the Coelom, or Body Cavity, of Amphioxus Lies, of Course,

as in the vertebrata, between the intestinal wall and the body walls, and, just as in the vertebrata, it is largely reduced where gill slits occur. But matters are rather complicated by the presence of an atrial cavity round the pharynx, which is not certainly represented in the vertebrata, and which the student is at first apt to call the body cavity, although it is entirely distinct and different from that space. The mutual relation of the two will become apparent after a study of Figures 10, 11, 12 (Sheet 21). Figure 10 gives diagrammatically a section of a very young stage of Amphioxus; P is the pharynx portion of the alimentary canal, coe. is the coelom surrounding it at this stage here as elsewhere; mt.c. are certain lymph spaces, the metapleural canals, between which a small invagination (i.e., a pushing-in), at., of the outer epidermis occurs; n.c. is the notochord, and s.c. the spinal cord. The gill slits, by which P. communicates with the exterior, are not shown. Next Figure 11 shows the invagination (at.) pushing its way in, and cut off from the exterior by a meeting of the body wall below. Note that at. is a portion of the animal's exterior thus embraced by its body, and that its lining is therefore of the same material as the external integument. In Figure 12, at. is developing upward, so that the true body hangs into it. Now imagine the gill slits perforated, as shown by the double-headed arrow in Figure 12. Figure 3, on Sheet 20, is a less diagrammatic representation of a cross-section of the pharyngeal region (vide Figure 1, Sheet 19). The student should compare Figure 3, Sheet 20, and Figure 12, Sheet 21. The atrium and metapleural canals are easily recognised in both. In Figure 3 the coelom is much cut up by the gill slits, and we have remaining of it (a) the dorsal coelomic canals (d.c.c.) and (b) the branchial canals (br.c.) in the bars between the slits. The atrial cavity remains open to the exterior at one point, the atrial pore (at.p.).