JRoj/al Society. 521 



tirement of Captain Smyth from the office of Foreign Secretary, in 

 consequence of his leaving his present residence for one at an in- 

 convenient distance from London. 



I sliall not detain you by any observations of the finances of the 

 Royal Society, as you will shortly hear the report of the Treasurer 

 on that subject. 



I have the honour, Gentlemen, to inform you that the Council 

 have, by an unanimous decision, awarded the Royal Medals to Dr. 

 Martin Bai'ry and Mr. Ivory, and the Copley Medal for the year 

 to Mr. Robert Brown ; and I shall now beg leave to address myself 

 to those three Gentlemen. 



Dr. Barry — it gives me sincere pleasure to bestow this medal on 

 a gentleman who has so well deserved it, by researches in a difficult 

 and important portion of nnimal physiology*. Your merits have 

 been appreciated by men much more capable of understanding the 

 subject than I can pretend to be — by men selected by the Council 

 of the Royal Society for their physiological science, who have felt 

 the great value of the discoveries you have made by accurate and 

 diligent research, aided by the skilful use of the microscope. I trust 

 that the award of this medal will encourage you to persevere in the 

 same course, and that future discoveries may add to your reputation 

 and to that of the important profession to which you belong. 



Mr. Ivory — it is not the first time that you have been addressed 

 from this chair, and it gives me great satisfaction to follow the steps 



* These researches are the subject of Dr. Martin Barry's papers "On 

 Embryology," communicated to the Royal Society in 1838 and 1839. 

 [Abstracts of which will be found in L. & E. Phil. Mag. vol. xiii. p. 458. 

 and vol. xiv. p. 493.] 



In these memoirs the author has brought to light many new and in- 

 teresting facts, and has repeated and confirmed previous observations 

 regarding the nature, formation, and developement of the ovum in the ver- 

 tcbrata, and especially in the mammalia. 



The iiTiportance of the subject and the difficulty of its investigation, 

 render the establishment of facts previously known extremely acceptable 

 to physiologists. But the novel matter contained in Dr. Barry's Me- 

 moirs forms a considerable proportion of them. Without entering into 

 unnecessary detail, we may mention that the author has determined the 

 order of formation of the different parts of the ovum, and the nature and 

 mode of developement of the vesicle (ovisac), in which these processes take 

 place. He has, in like manner, discovered the nature and traced the de- 

 velopement of the so-called disc of M. Baer, and has detected in it the 

 mechanism which mainly regulates the transit of the ovum into the Fallo- 

 pian tube. The second series of Dr. Barry's observations makes known 

 the changes which the ovum undergoes in its passage through the Fallo» 

 pian tube ; the earliest and most interesting stages of developement being 

 for the first time described in this memoir. 



Tire value of his very laborious and extensive series of minute observations 

 is greatly enhanced by the clearness and method with which the results 

 are given, and by the comparisons, which the author's intimate acquaint- 

 ance with this branch of physiological literature has enabled him to 

 institute, between his own observations and those of his predecessors in 

 the same branch of inquiry. 



