293 



January in the present year, a nest of about a score young frogs 

 were upturned. These were apparently three or four weeks old. 

 This ground had been previously dug in the month of August and 

 many strawberry plants buried; it was amongst a mass of these 

 plants in a state of partial decomposition that these young ones were 

 observed. 



Fifthly. Young frogs are bred in cellars where there is no water for 

 tadpoles. 



In mentioning this subject to Mr. Joseph Sidebotham of Man- 

 chester (an active botanist), he informed me that young frogs, and 

 in fact frogs of all sizes, were to be seen in his cellar amongst de- 

 caying dahlia tubers. The smallest of them were only about half 

 the ordinary size of the young frog when newly developed from the 

 tadpole. He further stated that there was no water in the cellar, 

 and no means of young frogs entering, except by first coming into 

 the kitchen, a mode of entry, if not impossible, highly improbable. 

 Mr. Sidebotham never found any spawn. 



It seems probable from the above, that frogs are occasionally 

 born alive in situations where no water can be found for the spawn 

 to be deposited in, and that toads are either reproduced in the same 

 manner, or from the egg directly. The latter mode seems most 

 likely, owing to spawn having been found previously to the young 

 toads. 



Mr. Higginbottom tells me, the same remark on the birth of the 

 Triton, without the stage of tadpole, has been mentioned to him. 



These are the facts ; should the subject be deemed worthy of 

 further investigation, I shall be glad to continue observations upon 

 these reptiles during the present year, or to make any experiments 

 that may be deemed advisable. 



March 17, 1853. 

 COLONEL SABINE, R.A., Treas. & V.P., in the Chair. 



The Right Honourable Viscount Palmerston was balloted for and 

 elected a Fellow of the Society. 



The following papers were read : — 



1 , " On Animal and Vegetable Fibre as originally composed of 

 Twin Spiral Filaments, in whicli every other structure has its Origin ; 

 a Note showing the confirmation by Agardh, in 1852, of observations 

 recorded in the Philosophical Transactions for 1842." By Martin 

 Barry, M.D., F.R.S., F.R.S.E. Received February 24, 1853. 



After referring to the drawings to his paper on Fibre, published in 

 the Philosophical Transactions for 1842, and the opinions entertained 

 by physiologists regarding the peculiar views he advanced in that 

 paper with reference to the original composition of organic fibre, 

 the author states that, after the lapse of eleven years, these views 

 have been fully confirmed, and in proof of this refers to a paper — 

 "De cellula vegetabili fibrillis tenuissimis contexta" (Lundae, 1852), 



