242 
MR. NEWPORT ON THE IMPREGNATION OF THE OVUM, AND 
On the day after, the embryo had moved still further round. Finally, the embryo 
was perfected, like those of the same set that were left in mass in water. 
Obs. 2. — Nine eggs were put into separate cells on March 11th, and when segmen- 
tation began, the line of the first cleft was carefully marked on the glass in the manner 
before explained. One of the eggs was abortive. 
March 13. The dorsal sulcus was forming in three of the embryos exactly in the 
line of the cleft. 
March 14. In each of the eight instances the axis of the body is more or less pre- 
cisely in the line of the sulcus : thus iii five it was in the exact line, in one about 
five degrees to the left, in another about three degrees to the left, and in the remain- 
ing one rather more to the left of the given line. 
Obs. 3. — Five eggs were placed in separate cells, and marked, as above directed, 
and then removed to a high temperature. 
March 26. The results obtained from these were confirmatory of the facts before 
stated, as the variation between the line and the axis of the beings was only slight ; 
the axis of two being directed to the right, one to the left, and one perfectly coin- 
ciding. 
Although these observations have shown that the axis of the body of the future 
embryo corresponds primarily with the first cleft in the yelk, they point out that, at 
times, the axis deviates to the left or right of that line. The cause of this deviation 
I may attribute to a change in the position of the yelk, for on March 29, 1853, I 
observed that the entire yelk occasionally shifts its position during the progress of 
segmentation, in consequence probably of unsymmetrical division, in accordance 
with the explanation before given at page 240. 
On the power of the Spermatozoon to influence in artificial impregnation the direc- 
tion of the first cleft of the Yelk. 
In connexion with the influence of the spermatozoon on the egg, I determined to 
try whether the artificial application of that body to different parts of the egg’s surface 
could affect the position of the first cleft of the yelk. 
Obs. 1 . — Several eggs were placed, March 29, in separate tube-cells, with each 
turned on its side so that both the dark and the white surface were exposed. Very 
recent spermatic fluid was then applied, by means of a pin’s head, to the lower part 
of the dark surface, and the cell was carefully marked close to the spot, to show where 
the egg was touched. 
The eggs rotated in the usual way, so as to bring upwards the dark surface, and at 
the end of one hour and a half only two eggs were fecundated. In these the spherical 
vesicles had the usual position and appearance, and were directed outwards across the 
centre of the flat surface of the yelk to that side of the egg to which the spermatic 
fluid had been applied. After the formation of the primary cleft, the cells were 
marked and set aside for the production of the embryo. 
