The communication which I have now the honour to present to the Royal Society is a portion of a series of investigations on the Development of the Embryo on which I have been for some years engaged, and which was commenced in a paper on the Development of the Myriapoda, that was honoured with a place in the Philosophical Transactions for 1841. I now propose to give the results of my observations on the Amphibia, reserving to a future early occasion the continuation of those on the Invertebrata commenced in the paper alluded to. The Amphibia, of all the vertebrated animals, afford to us the readiest means of investigating the difficult subject of Impregnation by actual experiment, and it is only, perhaps, by combining experiment with careful observations on the physical conditions that affect the development of the germ, and comparing these with the facts of the natural history and instincts of the species, that we may hope, ultimately, to obtain some further insight into this one of Nature’s most hidden secrets.