320 Dr Martin Barry on Vesicles in the 



bedded in the mucous membrane of the uterus, and attached 

 by bloodvessels near the junction of the uterus and Fallopian 

 tube. But being in search of ova, which it was important 

 to obtain without delay, I again and again passed the said 

 vesicles by, and perhaps might never have given them more 

 particular attention, had it not been that the small size of one 

 of them, by bringing its centre into view, revealed the pheno- 

 menon of a body rotating on its axis. The vesicle was ellipti- 

 cal and measured in length \' rf . The rotating body had a 

 diameter of F V", its corpuscles measured about 2 W- I 

 watched it rotating for half an hour, though an hour and a 

 half had elapsed after the rabbit had been killed before the 

 examination of the rotating body was begun. Of this vesicle 

 and what was seen of its contents I published an account, 

 with a drawing, in 1839.* The observation was incidental, 

 and the account given of it was far less complete than it would 

 have been had I known of the rotating body sooner. Singularly 

 enough, that body entire and rotating was seen by me but 

 once. Elliptical brown punctate corpuscles, however, the 

 debris of such a body, I afterwards repeatedly observed. 



Keber is. of opinion that whether found in the abdominal 

 cavity or in the uterus, and however different in size, the 

 vesicles in question are the same; and farther, that the vesicle 

 in which I had incidentally observed a rotating body was one 

 of these. In this opinion I agree with Keber. 



What are the said vesicles containing a rotating body ? 

 Keber believes them to be ova. 



When in 1839 I saw a vesicle which contained a mulberry- 

 like body bearing a perfect resemblance to the essential part 

 of the mammiferous ovum in several of its phases described 

 by me at the same time — that body rotating on its axis — the 

 thought naturally arose : Have we not here a mammiferous 

 ovum exhibiting rotation like that of some of the lower ani- 

 mals \ The resemblance, however, did not extend beyond the 

 rotating body. The membrane of the vesicle was fibrous, — 

 it was connected by bloodvessels with the uterus, instead of 

 lying in its cavity unattached, — there was only one membrane 



* Phil. Trans., 1839, p 355, PI. IX., fig. 151. 



