104 Some Particulars respecting the 
3d, Dicotyledonous phanerogamous vegetables, of which he 
enumerates the numerous families, indicating the characters 
more or less certain, more or less doubtful, which enable us 
to apapproximate them to the same families of vegetables 
now living. 
4th, Lastly, Monocotyledonous vegetables. 
The second part is devoted to a chronological examination 
of the periods of vegetation, and of the different floras which 
have succeeded each other on the surface of the earth. 
Some Particulars respecting the Spheroidal State of Bodies ; 
Proof by Fire; Man incombustible, Yc. By M. BouTIGNY 
(D’EVREUX.) Read before the French Academy of Sciences, 
24th May 1849. 
Towards the close of the third century of our era, the re- 
ligion of Zoroaster having suffered many desertions, a council 
of wise men was convoked to revive the declining faith of his 
followers. What was said with this view would now be of 
little interest to us. We may only state that eighty thousand 
dissentients continued to persist in their incredulity. 
In the year 241, Sapor or Chapour ordered the magi to 
do everything in their power to persuade them to return to 
the faith of their ancestors. It was on this occasion that 
one of the pontiffs of the prevailing religion, named Adura- 
bad Mabrasphand, offered to undergo the proof of fire. ‘“ He 
proposed that they should pour on his naked body eighteen 
pounds weight of melted copper, issuing from a furnace, and 
at a red heat, on condition, that if he was uninjured, the in- 
fidels should give way at so great a prodigy. It is said that 
the proof by fire was undergone so successfully, that they 
were all converted.” The historian adds, with an air of 
doubt, which may assuredly be readily permitted in such a 
ease ; “ We see that the religion of Zoroaster likewise has 
its miracles and its legends.”* 
Now, this proof by fire, so successfully submitted to by 
* Dictionnaire Historique, Critique et Bibliographique, t. xxvii., p. 417. 
