CAPT ER SECON De 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMBRYO FROM THE TIME THE EGG LEAVES THE 
OVARY TO THAT OF THE HATCHING OF THE YOUNG. 
Seri ON fF: 
THE LAYING OF THE EGGS. 
To tell American students that little is known of the habits of Turtles, the 
laying of their eggs, the growth of their young, etc., would perhaps excite a 
smile in those who, as boys, have been in the habit of collecting Turtles’ eggs ; 
ege-hunting being an occupation of which boys are fond all the world over. Yet 
so it is: what every inhabitant of the country may have seen again and again 
has not yet been collected in scientific works. I have however availed myself 
largely of the information circulated from hearsay throughout the community, as 
it was the best preparation for a thorough study of the Embryology of these 
animals. Guided by these reports, I could avail myself of the best opportu- 
nities for direct investigation, everywhere and at all times. But, though this be 
the case throughout the United States, it is nevertheless true that this informa- 
tion is nowhere recorded, and that the book-learned are ignorant of what every 
farmer, living by the side of our ponds and marshes, has known from childhood. 
I cannot, on that account, allow this opportunity to pass without emphatically 
calling attention to a point which is of the utmost importance for the farther 
progress of science in this country, where a desirable object is hardly made 
known, before its execution is taken into consideration. Had our public and 
private libraries been better supplied, and arranged with more system, so that 
their deficiencies in some points might have been as apparent as their com- 
pleteness in others, the omission to which I have just alluded would certainly 
