48 EMBRYOLOGY IN ANTIQUITY [pt. ii 



facts in experimental embryology, no use was apparently ever made 

 of it, though there seems to be a certain amount of traditional 

 information current among the peasant operators, as, for example, 

 that the "ruh" or life enters into the egg at the eleventh day. It 

 w^ould be interesting to investigate this aspect of the subject further. 



In ancient China also it would appear that artificial incubation 

 was successfully carried on in remote antiquity, if we may judge by 

 the account given by King. Native incubation in China is carried 

 on in wicker baskets, heated with charcoal pans (Plate Ib). The 

 attendants sleep in the incubator itself, and use the same thermometer 

 as the Egyptians, namely, their eyelids, to which they apply the blunt 

 end of the egg. The Egyptian success was known generally in the 

 West in later times though it could not be imitated. ' ' The Aegyptians ' ' , 

 said Sir Thomas Browne, "observed a better way to hatch their 

 Eggs in Ovens, than the Babylonians to roast them at the bottom of 

 a sling, by swinging them round about, till heat from motion had 

 concocted them; for that confuseth all parts without any such effect." 

 Browne's slightly rueful tone suggests that he tried it himself. It is 

 interesting that this quaint experiment was the cause of a controversy 

 between Sarsi, who asserted on the authority of Suidas that it was 

 possible, and GaHleo, who thought the idea ridiculous. Modern work 

 on the instability of albumen solutions, such as that of Harris, lends 

 some colour to the legend. (See p. 275.) 



Ancient Egypt supplies the starting-point for another and pro- 

 founder train of thought which recurs constantly throughout the 

 history of embryology, and to which I shall have to refer again more 

 than once. This was concerned with the problem of deciding at what 

 point the immortal constituent universally regarded as existing in 

 living beings took up its residence in the embryo. Some fragments 

 of ancient Indian philosophy assure us that the Vedic writers occupied 

 themselves with this question, and according to Crawley the Avesta 

 theorises upon it. But as early as 1400 B.C., i.e. during the eighteenth 

 dynasty in Egypt, something was said regarding this, for we have 

 extant at the present day a very beautiful hymn to the sun-god, 

 Aton, written by no less a person than Akhnaton (Nefer-kheperu-Ra 

 Ua-en-Ra, Amen-hetep Neter heq Uast), generally known as 

 Amenophis IV or the "heretic" king, who abandoned the traditional 

 worship of the Theban god Amen-Ra and established an Aton-cult, 

 as has been described by Baikie and others. One of his hymns, which 



