Spermatozoa observed within the mammiferous ovum / by Martin Barry.

  • Barry, M. (Martin), 1802-1855.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Spermatozoa observed within the mammiferous ovum / by Martin Barry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    [ 33 ] IV. Spermatozoa observed within the Mammiferous Ovum. By Martin Barry, M.D., F.R.SS. L. and E. Received November 24,—Read December 8, 1842. As the results of my researches in Embryolog-y have all been coinrnimicated to the Royal Society*, it seems proper to offer to its notice a single observation which I have lately made. On a former occasionI stated that at certain periods an orifice was sometimes visible in the thick transparent membrane zona pellucida) of the mammiferous ovum ; and that once I had seen an object very much resembling a spermatozoon in the orifice. But spermatozoa, so far as I am aware, have never been described as seen within the ovum of any animal. It may therefore be interesting to physiologists to be informed that about a fortnight since, in examining some ova of the Rabbit of twenty-four hours, from the Fallopian tube,—in which the orifice above-mentioned was no longer visible,—I unexpectedly discerned a number of spermatozoa in their interior. These ova were submitted to the inspection of Professor Owen, and I after- wards showed one of them to Professors Sharpey and Grainger, all of whom agreed that the spermatozoa were contained within the ovum\. London, 2\st November, 1842. * Philosophical Transactions, 1838-39-40-41. t Ibid. 1840, p. 533. X [The ova were in that state in which the essential part—the germ—consists of two cells. The spermatozoa lay around and between these cells; and when the ova were first examined I thought I discerned traces of spermatozoa even within the cells. While the paper is going through the press, the opportunity is afforded me for mentioning that I have this day confirmed the observation above recorded; several ova from the Fallopian tube of another rabbit, in a somewhat earlier stage, having presented spermatozoa in their interior;—i. e. (as in the first observation) within the thick transparent membrane (“ zona pellucida”) brought with the ovum from the ovary.—31st March, 1843.] MDCCCXLIII. F