Disease is a significant threat in the global decline of reptile species. Many aquatic reptiles live in habitats with high levels of opportunistic microbial pathogens, yet little is known about their immune system. Gut‐associated lymphoid tissue is vital for protection against ingested pathogens and maintenance of normal gut microbiota. In mammals, gut mucosal immunity is well‐characterized and mucosal surfaces are coated in protective antibodies. However, reptiles lack lymph nodes and Peyer's patches, which are the major sites of mammalian B cell responses. The presence or distribution of mucosal B cells in reptiles is unknown. In this study, we first set out to determine if B cells could be detected in intestinal tissues of red‐eared slider turtles, Trachemys scripta. Using whole‐mount immunochemistry and a primary antibody to turtle antibody light chains, we identified widely distributed B cell aggregates within the small intestine of hatchling turtles. These aggregates appeared similar to isolated lymphoid follicles (ILFs) in mammals and the frequency was much higher in distal intestinal sections than in proximal sections. To determine if these structures were inducible in the presence of microbes, we introduced an enteric Salmonella species through oral gavage. Analysis of intestinal tissues revealed that hatchlings exposed to Salmonella exhibited significantly more of these aggregates when compared with those that did not receive bacteria. These studies provide the first evidence for B cell‐containing ILF‐like structures in reptiles and provide novel information about gut immunity in nonmammalian vertebrates that could have important implications for ecological interactions with pathogens.

This Thesis examines the problem of philosophic education. It outlines a problem of philosophic education that comes out of ancient and modern scholarship concerning the initiation into philosophy. Essentially every philosopher and scholar who has looked at it is unable to describe the conditions of what a philosophic education is. The problem gets originally illuminated out of the Laws and Republic of Plato. The final chapter of the thesis looks at the dialogue Gorgias and adopts a hermeneutical interpretation of the text to see what the conditions might be for a philosophic education to be possible.iii Acknowledgments I would especially like to thank Dr. Tom Darby, my supervisor, for his inspiration in completing this thesis and for his continuing encouragement over the last few years. I am grateful for his patience, and especially grateful for helping me engage in odysseys that have taken me down and up again in ancient Political Philosophy.

I would first like to thank both of my Co-PIs, Dr. Laura Vogel and Dr. Rachel Bowden for giving me the opportunity to work with them on this wonderful journey into the realm of research and turtles. This work would not have been possible without their endless amounts of support and encouragement. The door to their offices were always open whenever I ran into trouble in the lab or had a question about my research or writing. Secondly, I would like to thank all of my past and present lab members for their contributions both in the lab and out in the field;