Bateson's views attracted considerable attention, and were thought by many to lighten appreciably the obscurity in which the origin of Vertebrates was wrapped. Thus Lankester wrote in his article on Vertebrates[421] in the _Encyclopedia Britannica_:--"It seems that in _Balanoglossus_ we at last find a form which, though no doubt specialised for its burrowing sand-life, and possibly to some extent degenerate, yet has not to any large extent fallen from an ancestral eminence. The ciliated epidermis, the long worm-like form, and the complete absence of segmentation of the body-muscles lead us to forms like the Nemertines. The great proboscis of _Balanoglossus_ may well be compared to the invaginable organ similarly placed in the Nemertines. The collar is the first commencement of a structure destined to assume great importance in _Cephalochorda_ and _Craniata_, and perhaps protective of a single gill-slit in _Balanoglossus_ before the number of those apertures had been extended. Borrowing, as we may, the nephridia from the Nemertines, and the lateral in addition to the dorsal nerve, we find that _Balanoglossus_ gives the most hopeful hypothetical solution of the pedigree of Vertebrates." Much doubt was cast upon the Chordate affinities of the Enteropneusta by Spengel in his monograph of the group,[422] but when the development of the coelom came to be more thoroughly worked out in _Balanoglossus_ and Amphioxus, the striking resemblance in this respect between the two forms gave additional support to the Batesonian view.[423] [386] The stages in the development of microscopical technique are well summarised by R. Burckhardt, _Geschichte der Zoologie_, p. 121, Leipzig 1907. [387] "Entwickelungsgeschichte des Amphioxus lanceolatus," _Mem. Acad. Sci. St Petersbourg_ (Petrograd) (vii.), xi., No. 4, 1867, 17 pp., 3 pls. [388] "Weitere Studien ue. die Entwickelungsgeschichte des Amphioxus lanceolatus," _Arch. fuer mikr. Anat._, xiii., pp. 181-204, 1877. [389] Particularly by Hatschek (1881) and Boveri (1892). [390] "Entwickelungsgeschichte der einfachen Ascidien," _Mem. Acad. Sci. St Petersbourg_ (Petrograd), (vii.), x., No. 15, 1866, 19 pp., 3 pls. "Weitere Studien ue. die Entwicklung der einfachen Ascidien," _Arch. f. mikr. Anat._, vii., pp. 101-130, 1871. [391] _Descent of Man_, i., p. 205, 1871. [392] _Arch. f. mikr. Anat._, vi., 1870, and viii., 1872. [393] _Archives de Biologie_, 1884, 1885, and 1887. [394] _Bull. Acad. Sci. St Petersbourg_ (Petrograd) xiii., 1869, and _Zeits. f. wiss. Zool._, xxii., 1872. [395] _Mem. Acad. Sci. St Petersbourg_(Petrograd)(7), xix., 1873. [396] Giard, _Arch. zool. exper. gen._, i., 1872, and Lacaze-Duthiers, _ibid._, iii., 1874.