118 Ciliary Motions in Reptiles and Warm-blooded Animals. 



lentin were led to make their interesting discovery, by acciden- 

 tally noticing the ciliary motion in the fallopian tube of a rabbit, 

 which observation they have followed up with an extensive and 

 well directed inquiry. Their memoir has been already made 

 known in this country in the number of the Dublin Journal of 

 Medical and Chemical Science for May 1835, through which 

 I have to acknowledge having first obtained notice of it. The 

 original is in the fifth number of Midlers Archivfur Anatomie, 

 Sj-c.Jbr 1834. A translation of it here follows. 



Discovery of Continual Vibratory Motions produced by Cilia, 

 as a general Phenomenon in Reptiles, Birds, and Mammife- 

 rous Animals. By Professor Puhkinje and Dr Valentin, 

 of Breslaw. 



The remarkable property possessed by parts of certain ani- 

 mals, of exciting currents in the medium surrounding them, 

 which is generally fluid, has justly attracted the attention of na- 

 turalists, and given rise to numerous observations. The phe- 

 nomenon was first discovered in the Infusoria, being easily re- 

 cognizable in the rotatory apparatus of some of these creatures. 

 Similar appearances were at a later period observed in mussels 

 by Erman, Von Baer, Carus, and others ; and the curious re- 

 volving motion of the embryo within the ovum, which is easily 

 perceived in these animals,, has been correctly referred to the 

 same cause. Observations of the same kind were also made in 

 many other avertebrated animals. The first discovery of any 

 thing similar in the Vertebrata is due to Steinbuch, who ob- 

 served the phenomenon on the gills of the larvae of Batrachian 

 Reptiles, although his description does not altogether corres- 

 pond with nature. Carus, Hugi, E. H. Weber, Stiebel, John 

 Miiller, and other naturalists, have furnished particular contri- 

 butions to the general collection of facts. We beg, however, to 

 refer, such as are desirous of making themselves acquainted with 

 the subject, as far as it has been hitherto known, to an article 

 by Sharpey in Froriep's Notizen, No. 618. 



