FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
27 
year, and produce from two to three lambs, and even up to 
five, at each birth. The director of the School Farm of the 
department of the Vosges informs M. Legabbe that one ewe 
there had produced ten lambs within the year. The wool is 
at least as good, he adds, as that of other sheep, but, owing 
to the breeding habits of the females, the quantity is somewhat 
less. Although the ewes manifest no unwillingness to bring up 
their whole fatnily, it has been found desirable to allow them 
to suckle only two lambs each, goats being kept as nurses. 
, At a recent meeting of the above-named society of Great 
Britain, it was stated that the flock of Chinese sheep is in a 
thriving condition; all that were offered for sale were readily 
purchased, and there is a demand for more. Lord Powers- 
court reported the birth of four lambs to one of his ewes. 
Five lambs were added to the flock of the society in Sep¬ 
tember. 
Ova in Infusoria. —The discovery of the existence of 
ova in some of the infusoria goes far to prove the truth of the 
doctrine Omfze vivum ex ovo'^ Mr. T. A. Engelmann in 
1859 met with specimens of tho St^lonichia mytilus containing 
embryonic corpuscles, and in 1861 found others that illus¬ 
trated a further stage in their history. These latter were 
individuals of medium size, and mostlv contained but one 
large embryonic globule, placed between the nuclei, close 
behind the angle of the anal aperture. Placed over it on the 
central aspect of the animal, there always existed an elliptic 
or rounded opening, of variable size, which was the outlet for 
the escape of the mature ovum. On one occasion only was 
an elongated and rounded dorsal aperture found, in addition 
to the abdominal foramen just named, and serving, like it, for 
the escape of the embryos; the act of birth was several times 
witnessed. 
The same observer confirms Muller’s discovery of sper¬ 
matozoa in Paramecium aurelia\ and says they are not, as 
usually represented, their ends equally pointed at both ex¬ 
tremities, but have a bulky anterior and a thinner posterior 
extremity, of greater transparency. Their maximum length 
is 0'008 of a millimetre.— Annals of Natural History. 
Formation of Organic Compounds. — During the 
growth of a plant, says Dr. Odling, there is a constant 
building up of organic compounds of a certain class out of 
carbonic acid and water, and simultaneously a constant elimi¬ 
nation of oxygen. Now just as oxidation tends to separate 
the carbon and hydrogen atoms of complex molecules, so, on 
