186 
EDWIN S. GOODRICH. 
to dispose of tlieiu. Sucli convincing evidence can now be 
brought forward against these views, tliat it may be hoped 
the question will soon be definitely settled. Moreover, I take 
this opportunity of adding certain details which serve to 
complete our knowledge of these interesting organs. 
In 1904 Boveri published a note (la) in which, while 
accepting my description of solenocytes, he still maintained 
that the lumen of the nephridial canal opens into the dorsal, 
or hyper-branchial, coelom by one or more funnels. 
Felix, in his excellent acconnt of the development of the 
excretory organs of the Vertebrata (2), fully adopted my 
view as to the structure of the nephridia of Amphioxus, and 
gave some figures, derived from Boveri’s original paper (1), 
but “corrected after Goodrich.” In these figures the funnels 
wei-e closed up. 
Shortly afterwards Felix changed his opinion, having exa- 
mined Boveri’s sections, and republished the latter’s figures 
in their original condition (with open funnels) in a second 
work on the excretory organs of the Vertebrata (3). K. C. 
Schneider likewise accepts Boveri’s description, but gives no 
new figures to support his opinion (12). 
Xow, it may at once be stated that I am firmly convinced 
that such internal funnels do not exist. Indeed, I am 
prepared not only to affirm that they do not occur in any 
Amphioxus I have examined, but also to prove the correctness 
of my description to any competent person who is willing to 
look at my preparations. My affirmation is based on a long 
and patient study of numberless specimens, both living and 
preserved. It is naturally to sections that one turns for the 
final verdict, and I may say that, although I have examined 
hundreds of sections of specimens of different sizes and ages, 
preserved according to a variety of methods, cut in all 
directions, stained in various ways, never once have I been 
able to discover such an opening. Occasionally, if the section 
is broken, the preservation defective, or the staining im- 
perfect, one may meet with what at first sight appears to be 
a communication between the coelom and the nephridial 
