*.** v/lr/i: : 



170 '" ,,. MR. NEWPORT ON THE IMPREGNATION OF 



"of "these bodies to the Royal Society*, and regarded them as in some way essential to 

 the fecundation of the ova ; although his conjecture that they became the future 

 embryos was erroneous. Eighty-five years afterwards, Dr. PARSONS, Foreign Secre- 

 tary of the Royal Society, believed it to be " extreme nonsense to imagine that the 

 insignificant animals called spermatic animals can contribute anything towards pro- 

 pagation," &c.-f-, and it was not until the publication of the observations of LEDER- 

 MULLER^;, a few years after that, that the production of spermatozoa, as part of the 

 fluid, began to be admitted. Dr. HILL, in the notes to his English translation of 

 SWAMMERDAM'S Biblia Naturse^, two years later, mentioned them as abundant in the 

 Frog at the season of pairing, but that it was then the fashion to doubt even their 

 existence. YetNEEDHAM, ten years after this, while acknowledging that these bodies 

 are found in the fluid of all animals, adopting the views of BUFFON and DAUBENTON, 

 stated that they do not exist until after the fluid is removed from the vessels, and 

 decomposition has commenced \\. And later still, even in our own time, their existence 

 has been denied in the most positive manner by Sir EVERARD HOME^[. SPALLANZANI, 

 however, was so well acquainted with them, as found in the Frog and Toad, that he 

 has recorded his great surprise at not observing them in the latter on two occasions**. 

 BoNNET-j-f- and GLEICHEN^, also, well knew them to abound in the males of animals 

 of distinct species at the season of impregnation, but discovered that they are usually 

 absent in hybrids, a fact that has since been confirmed by PREVOST and DUMAS . 

 These two observers, regarding the spermatic bodies, with LEEWENHOEK, as essential 

 elements of the semen, believed that they actually penetrate bodily into the ovum, and 

 become by metamorphosis part of the future embryo. Still more recently it has been 

 stated byDr. BARRY || | to this Society that he has actually seen the spermatozoon within 

 the ovum, a statement which my own observations do not enable me to confirm. 



Before any satisfactory conclusion could be arrived at respecting the importance 

 of the spermatic bodies in impregnation, it was necessary to ascertain their nature, 

 to trace their mode of development and production, to establish the periods of their 

 occurrence in different classes of animals, and to learn something of their chemical 



* Philosophical Transactions, 1667, vol. xii. p. 1040. 



f Philosophical Observations on the Analogy between the Propagation of Animals and that of Vegetables. 

 8vo. 1752 (note), p. 44. 



J Physikalische Beobachtungen der Samenthierchen. Nuremb. 1756. And also, "Beytrage zu denen 

 Beobachtungen deerer Saamenthiergen und Kleiste Aale gehorig. 12mo. Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1759." 



Book of Nature, folio, part 2 (note), p. 105, 1758. 



|| Notes des Nouvelles Recherches sur les De'couvertes Microscopiques de 1'Abbe SPALLANZANI par M. 

 NEEDHAM. Lond. 1769, torn. i. p. 196. 



1J Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, 4to, vol. v. pp. 332 and 337. 1828. 



** Dissertations relative to the Natural History of Animals and Vegetables. Lond. 1789, p. 151. 



ft " Contemplations de la Nature ; " and " OZuvres d'Histoire Naturelle," 4to, torn. iii. p. 454, &c. 1779. 



JJ Abhandlung iiber der Samen- und Infusionsthierchen. Nuremb. 1788. 



Annales des Sciences Naturelles (Prem. Se'rie), torn. i. p. 182, 1824. 



1111 Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. iv. p. 432. Phil. Trans, part 1, 1843, p. 33. 



