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The continua of type 1 Seyferts from 0.3 to 100 microns have been examined. We focus on the modifying effects of dust, both in terms of absorption and re-radiation. After allowance is made for dust and the presence of extranuclear contributions to the IRAS fluxes, there remains a ubiquitous underlying distribution which we believe to be non-thermal. There is evidence that the thermal infrared components corresponding to hot and warm dust may be associated with the broad and narrow emission line regions.

The evidence for anisotropic continuum emission in some Seyferts, is increasingly convincing. However, the generality of this phenomenon has not yet been determined. I present new observations which suggest that its occurrence is widespread.

Evidence has been accumulating that the gas which produces the broad line emission (BLR gas) in active galaxies has a range of physical conditions, and may indeed come from a distribution of spatially distinct regions (Gaskell 1982, Ulrich et al. 1984, Netzer 1987, Collin-Soufrin et al. 1988). In this paper, we try to separate out any contribution to the BLR emission line profiles from optically thin material. We do this by comparing the profiles of OI λ8446 (a flourescence line only produced by clouds very optically thick to Lyman α, Elitzur and Netzer 1985) and Hα (which can be produced by optically thick and optically thin clouds).