FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
29 
particular substances that may enter into the composition of 
a given body, but to exhibit all its elements. To do this in 
a sure and complete manner, it is necessary to ascertain for 
each body the changes which its spectrum undergoes at each 
successive elevation of temperature. We must also take 
account of the ^jreater or less facilitv which different sub- 
stances offer for the transmission of the current, and likewise 
not forget the transport of the substance of the electrodes.^^ 
The Consanguinity Controversy. — M. Beaudouin 
communicates to the French Academy an account of his 
breeding in and in ” with a flock of 300 sheep without any 
apparent ill effect; but in this, as in similar cases, the alliance 
between the two sexes was strictly regulated, and all weak 
and undesirable animals were excluded. In one case, during 
a period of twenty-two years, a sheep was born in this flock 
exactly reproducing the primitive type. M. Beaudouin 
agrees in the main with M. Sanson, but observes that he 
generalises too fast when he says that the inconveniences 
attributed to consanguineous connections have no foundation 
in observation. “ We should add,^^ observes M. Beaudouin, 
when such unions take place between selected individuals.^^ 
M. Gourdon, after reviewing the proceedings of the most 
celebrated cattle-breeders, contends that Durham oxen. New 
Leicester pigs, Ditchley sheep, and other successful exam¬ 
ples, are, however useful to man, monstrosities, constituted 
in opposition to all the laws of health, and that connections 
of consanguinity always produce mischief, although it may 
be convenient to resort to them for special purposes. 
Professor Wyman on Infusoria. — The ‘American 
Journal of Science^ gives the details of a number of experi¬ 
ments relating to the controversy concerning the generation 
of infusoria. Professor Wyman, apparently operating with 
great care, obtains results nearer tliose of Pouchet than of 
Pasteur. He boiled various infusions of animal and vegetable 
matter, and sealed them in flasks containing only air that had 
been exposed to a red heat. Nevertheless, in a number of 
instances, he obtained infusoria, usually Vibrio Spirillum and 
Bacterium, but sometimes ferment cells, monads, and kolped- 
like bodies. He cannot reconcile his results with the theory 
of the dissemination of eggs. 
Pyrophosphate of Iron. — Professor Chapman con¬ 
siders the pyrophosphate of iron the most preferable of all 
the salts of this metal, from its being less liable to disagree 
