1884.] 
Development of the Embryo. 601 
their full development, whilst of the 114 of the first group 
60 presented notable imperfections. Their movements were 
also abnormal. There were three cases of paralysis and 
two of contractions. 
Six of these chickens arrived at maturity. Of these, two 
were cocks of a splendid stature, and endowed with an insa- 
tiable reproductive appetite. With the four pullets it was 
quite the contrary. One of them never laid at all, and the 
three others generally produced merely minute eggs (the 
heaviest weighing only 30 grms.), without yolks, without 
germinal spot, and, in a word, sterile. 
The magnetic influence upon the embryo is therefore evi- 
dent, and its aCtion upon the structure and the functions of 
the germ is still manifest when the latter is arrived at 
maturity. 
May we not, to explain this effeCt of the magnets, suppose 
an interference between the magnetic vibrations and the 
heat vibrations which animate the molecules of the fe- 
cundated germ, and impel them towards a new condition of 
organic equilibrium. This influence generally prevents, and 
more rarely retards, the development of the embryos (hyper- 
trophy in the two cocks, and atrophy in the four hens), and, 
as interference implies analogy, may we not infer that the 
vibrations which impel the germ towards its development 
are analogous to the magnetic vibrations ? 
2 R 
VOL. VI. (THIRD SERIES). 
