A NEW SPOROZOON IN AMPHIOXUS. 311 



A New Sporozoon in Amphioxus. 



By 

 E. C. Pollard, B.Sc. 



Witli Plate XXIX. 



My work has been carried on in the Laboratory of Com- 

 parative Anatomy at Oxford ; and I wish at the commencement 

 of this brief notice to ofi'er my best thanks to Professor Ray 

 Lankester^ both for allowing me to work here and for his 

 valuable suggestions and help. 



Quite recently I had occasion to cut a series of transverse 

 sections through Amphioxus lanceolatus for the purpose 

 of demonstrating the working of the microtome, rather than 

 with any idea of obtaining sections of any particular interest. 



To my surprise, however, the series, although cut without 

 any particular care and in a hot atmosphere, proved to be well 

 worth examining, chiefly from the fact that the cochineal stain 

 which was used had differentiated the tissues to a remarkable 

 extent. This differentiation is chiefly noticeable in the intes- 

 tine, which is stained a deep violet, in strong contrast to the 

 cochineal red of the notochord and other tissues. 



On examining the sections a peculiar structure in the intes- 

 tine at once attracted notice. 



In various parts of the posterior region of the gut the epi- 

 thelium appeared to differ from that of the rest of the wall, 

 the cells seeming to contain much larger nuclei, and being 

 apparently curved round to form small cup-shaped organs 

 (figs. 1-4). 



As will be at once seen from the figures, these cups present 



