578 



15th of September, and, although it was then later in the season than 

 any successful ascent of Mont Blanc had been achieved, Dr. Barry 

 resolved upon the enterprise, and accomplished it with safety to him- 

 self and his guides. His was the sixteenth ascent that had been 

 made : it occupied three days, owing to the unusual obstacles which 

 the snow at that season presented ; but the Doctor was rewarded by 

 a magnificent view from the summit, and by weather so remarkably 

 fine that " during the whole time he did not see a single cloud." In 

 March 18.36, Dr. Barry published an account of this ascent, which 

 formed the subject of two Lectures delivered by him in Edinburgh, 

 the proceeds of which he presented to the Royal Infirmary of that city. 

 Baron Humboldt so highly esteemed the narrative and its author, that 

 he personally requested Dr. Barry to translate from the German his 

 (the Baron's) " Two attempts to ascend Chimborazo." This transla- 

 tion appeared in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 1837. 



The difficult and recondite subject of animal development and 

 embryology early attracted the young physician's attention, and he 

 made himself intimately acquainted not only with the literature of 

 that department of physiology, but with the eminent authors of the 

 most valued works and treatises on those subjects. In the museums 

 and laboratories of Professors Wagner, Purkinje, Valentin, and 

 Schwann, Dr. Barry acquired that skill in microscopical investiga- 

 tions of which he subsequently made such excellent use. 



He published a translation of the first part of 'Valentin's Manual 

 of the History of Development,' in the Edinburgh Medical and Sur- 

 gical Journal for 1836. From that period to 1840 he devoted him- 

 self exclusively to original researches on the development of the 

 mammalian ovum and embryo, which at the time when he took up 

 the subject was the darkest part of embryological science. The 

 results of these researches were communicated to the Royal Society 

 of London in three successive memoirs, entitled " Researches in 

 Embryology." The ' First Series ' was printed in the Philosophical 

 Transactions for 1838 ; the ' Second Series' in the volume for 1839 ; 

 the ' Third Series,' entitled " A Contribution to the Physiology of 

 Cells," in that for 1840. In the same year Dr. Barry communicated 

 a memoir " On the Corpuscles of the Blood," printed in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions for 1840. The Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1841 contain his memoirs " On the Formation of the Chorion," 



