326 Dr Martin Barry on the Penetration of 



On the Penetration of Spermatozoa into the Interior of the 

 Ovum; a Note, shewing this to have been recorded as an 

 Established Fact, in the Philosophical Transactions for 

 1843. By Martin Barry, M.D., F.R.S., F.R.S.E. (Read 

 before the Royal Society of London, March 17, 1853.) 



A paper on " The Reproduction of Ascaris mystax, by 

 Henry Nelson, M.D.," published in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions for 1852, contains the following remark : — " Dr 

 Martin Barry says, ' On one occasion, in an ovum of h\ 

 hours, I saw in the orifice of the membrane' (the external 

 membrane of the ovum) • an object very much resembling a 



spermatozoon which had increased in size 1 am not 



prepared to say that this was certainly a spermatozoon, but 

 it seems proper to record the observation.' " 



Dr Nelson then adds : " Now, whether we believe Dr 

 Barry to have really seen the penetration of the sperma- 

 tozoon into the mammiferous ovum, or whether we agree 

 with Bischoff and most other distinguished authors, and 

 deny the correctness of Dr Barry's observation, as well as 

 the possibility of any such occurrence, the present inves- 

 tigations appear to be the first in which the fact of the pene- 

 tration of spermatozoa into the ovum has been distinctly 

 seen and clearly established, in one of the most highly organ- 

 ized of the Entozoa."* 



When he made this statement, Dr Nelson was evidently 

 not aware of what had been published on the subject. A 

 reference to the Philosophical Transactions for 1843, Part I., 

 p. 33, will shew him that my announcement in 1840, which 

 he quotes, that 1 had seen " an object very much resembling 

 a spermatozoon" entering the ovum of the rabbit, was fol- 

 lowed three years afterwards by a communication to the 

 Royal Society, entitled " Spermatozoa observed within the 

 Mammiferous Ovum" and recording as an established fact, 

 that I had met with ova of the same animal, containing a 

 number of spermatozoa in their interior ; a fact established 

 not only by my own observations, but by those of others. 



* Phil. Trans., 1852, p. 578. 



