Renewed inquiries concerning the spiral structure of muscle, with observations on the muscularity of cilia / by Martin Barry, M.D.

  • Martin Barry
Date:
[1852]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Renewed inquiries concerning the spiral structure of muscle, with observations on the muscularity of cilia / by Martin Barry, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    dating power upon cells lying in the parenchyma of the organs, and becomes assimilated according to the specific constitution of the same. Sometimes, instead of chyle, as the fecundating sub- stance to be assimilated, there reaches the hyaline of the blood- corpuscles quite another heterogeneous substance, for instance some sort of infectious matter, organic or animal poison, &c., whereby there as surely arise diseased processes of formation, which communicate themselves to the remaining portion of the blood or to the parenchyma of the organs. The author refers to a full confirmation of his observations on the remarkable process of cell-formation in the germinal vesicle of the mammiferous ovum, by those of Mr. H. 1). S. Goodsir on a cystic entozoon. And as this lies at the other end of the series of organic existences, the operation of the process in ques- tion there, implies its operation in all intermediate ones. He then notices an objection made to his obsei-vations, pub- lished in 1839 and 1840, when making known the fact that cleavage takes place in the mammiferous ovum also,—that such cleavage is elFected by means of cells ; showing that inadequate research led to that objection, and concluding his remarks with the following words :— After having examined 230 ova found in the Fallopian tube, with the sacrifice of 150 rabbits for em- biyological research, of which rabbits at least a score were de- voted to anatomical inspection for the purpose of enabling me to determine the time at which the ovum leaves the ovary,—no man will wonder that I deem myself competent to judge whether the divisions of the germ are, or are not eftected by means of cells. No man who does not examine mammiferous ova in large num- ber immediately before their exit from the ovary, or otherwise through observations on animals or plants make himself ac- quainted with the germinal-spot-process of division, is able to comprehend the formative process in the mammiferous ovum in any of its earlier or later stages, or indeed to understand the physiology of cells'^. A former drawing, fig. 13, shows the mode in which a spiral arises out of cells. The following may serve to illustrate the way in which the twin or double spiral is produced. Every mi- croscopic observer must be familiar with segmented cytoblasts, * [In the mammiferous ovum there is no' substance that can be called a food-yelk. The germ-cells therefore are not there obscured by a siu'round- iug yelk-mass, the cleavage of which they govern, as seems to be the case in ova since figured by other observers.]