1^4 Dr Barry's Observatton$ on Fibre. 



indicated a division of the nucleus as being more particularly 

 the mode of reproduction, not only of those corpuscles, but of 

 cells in general. With this conjecture the observations of 

 Remak on the blood-corpuscles of the foetal chick fully accord, 

 Whether the author's further speculation, namely, that the 

 parent-cells are altered red blood-discs, is correct, still remains 

 to be seen. 



The phenomenon of the " breaking off short," or notching 

 of the fasciculus of a voluntary muscle in a transverse cleavage 

 of the fibre, is regarded by Dr Barry as a natural consequence 

 of the interlacing of the larger spirals, which he has described 

 in a former paper ; the fracture, in proceeding directly across 

 the fasciculus, taking the direction in which there is least re- 

 sistance. 



The position of the filament in the blood-corpuscle is repre- 

 sented as bearing a striking resemblance to that of the young 

 in the ovum of certain intestinal worms, the filaments of 

 which are reproduced by spontaneous division. The author 

 subjoins the following quaere, " Is the blood-corpuscle to be re- 

 garded as an ovum V 



(We are requested by Dr Barry to state that the above abstract con- 

 tains several errors, among which are the following (see paragraphs 6 

 and 7.) 



1. That the blood-corpuscles are reproduced by means of parent cells, 

 he had not " suggested/' but clearly shewn. 



2. That a division of the nucleus is more particularly the mode of re- 

 production, was no *^^ conjecture," but recorded as a fact, 



3. That the parent^cells are altered red blood-discs, was also an ob- 

 served fact, and not a *' speculation.'' 



4. It is the filament formed in the blood-corpuscle that Dr Barry de- 

 scribes as being reproduced by self-division, and not the filaments of in- 

 testinal worms. — Edit. 



