PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 



1840—1841. No. 46. 



December 10, 1840. 



SIR JOHN W. LUBBOCK, Bart., V.P. and Treas., in the Chair. 



A Memorandum, addressed to the Royal Society, November 28th, 

 1840, by Martin Barry, M.D., F.R.S., L. & Ed., was read. 



Dr. Barry, in reference to the memorandum of Mr. Wharton Jones, 

 claiming for himself the contemporaneous discovery of the germinal 

 spot in the mammiferous ovum, states that, after having bestowed 

 considerable pains to ascertain who was the original observer of a 

 structure which has proved to be of great importance, he had men- 

 tioned incidentally in his paper the result of his inquiry, namely, that 

 the merit of the discovery was due to Professor Rudolph Wagner ; but 

 observes that the inquiry may be resumed by all who will take the 

 trouble to examine the works, both in German and English, on this 

 subject ; and that he will ever be open to conviction, and ready to de- 

 clare his change of opinion, on the production of sufficient evidence. 



A communication was also read, entitled " Supplementary Note 

 to a Paper, entitled ' Researches in Embryology. Third Series: 

 a Contribution to the Physiology of Cells.' " By Martin Barry, M.D., 

 F.R.S.,L.&Ed. 



In the paper referred to, the author had shown, that after the ovum 

 of the Rabbit has entered the Fallopian tube, cells are found col- 

 lected around its thick transparent membrane or " zona pellucida"; 

 which cells, by coalescing, form a thinner membrane — the incipient 

 chorion. He now adds, that the formation of this thinner membrane 

 does not exhaust the whole layer of these cells ; but that a stratum 

 of them is found remaining on, and entirely surrounding the " zona", 

 after the thinner membrane has risen from it. The fluid space also, 

 between the "zona" and the thinner membrane, presents a large 

 number of cells or discoid objects, each of which contains a bril- 

 liantly pellucid and highly refracting globule. In some parts, several 

 of these discs, closely joined together, have the appearance of shreds 

 of membrane ; in others, there are found pellucid globules, some of 

 which are exceedingly minute. The discs now mentioned collect 

 at the periphery, for the thickening of the chorion. They seem to 



B 



