441 



On the 24th we discover that it has suddenly resumed the most 

 distant a.^i. period, viz. 10 a.m., but proceeds regularly to the noon 

 period at the change. 



" Although the differences of level do not at full and change ex- 

 ceed 1 foot 4| inches, still I presume that we have sufficient data 

 to establish the fact, — that it is not invariably high ivater at noon 

 (as asserted by Kotzebue, Beechey and others) ; and, further, that 

 we have corresponding nightly periods of high water. 



" It is evident that the time of high water at full and change may 

 be assumed as that of noon, because we iiave sufficiently decided 

 changes of level to fix the approximate period of high water. 



" It does not appear by these Registers, that any higher levels 

 result from the rollers sent in by the strong sea breezes (as asserted 

 by several writers), but rather the contrary, the highest levels being 

 indicated during the night, when the land breezes prevailed. 



" I have great satisfaction in presenting you with these facts, and 

 trust that they may induce others to follow up the same experiments, 

 so as, eventually, to obtain the variations which other seasons may 

 produce. 



" I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, 



" Edward Belcher, Captainr 

 " Captain Beaufort, R.N,, F.R.S., HydrographerT 



2. " On Fissiparous Generation :" by Martin Barry, M.D., F.R.S. 

 L. and Ed. 



The author observes that the blood-corpuscle and the germinal 

 vesicle resemble one another in the circumstance of an orifice ex- 

 isting in the centre of the parietal nucleus of both. He pursues the 

 analogy still farther, conceiving that as a substance of some sort is 

 introduced into the ovum through its orifice, which the author 

 terms the point of fecundation, so the corpuscles of the blood may 

 undergo a sort of fecundation through their corresponding orifice ; 

 and also that the blood-corpuscle, like the germinal vesicle, is pro- 

 pagated by self-division of its nucleus ; a mode of propagation 

 which he believes to be common to cells in general. The nucleus 

 of the germinal vesicle, or original parent cell of the ovum, gives 

 origin, by self-division, to two young persistent cells, endowed with 

 qualities resulting from the fecundation of the parent cell ; these 

 two cells being formed by assimilation, out of a great number of 

 minuter cells which had been previousl}'- formed. This account of 

 the process, which takes place in the reproduction of the entire or- 

 ganism, explains, according to Dr. Barry, the mysterious reappear- 

 ance of the qualities of both parents in the offspring. 



Certain nuclei, which the author has delineated in former papers 

 as being contained within and among the fibres of the tissues, he 

 conceives to be, in like manner, centres of assimilation, from obser- 

 ving that they present the same sort of orifice, that they are repro- 

 duced by self-division, and that they are derived from the original 

 cells of development ; that is, from the nuclei of the corpuscles of 

 the blood. He considers that assimilation of the substance intro- 



