IN CCENA DOMINI INCUBATION. 



51 



which declared all heretics and favourers of heretics, 

 without distinction, and those who imposed taxes 

 upon the clergy, for the purpose of supplying the 

 wants of the state, solemnly excommunicated. After 

 the fourteenth century, it was extended and modified 

 by several popes. Pope Pius V. ordered that it 

 should be read aloud in all the churches on Maunday 

 Thursday, because many Catholic princes tolerated 

 Protestants in their countries, and required contribu- 

 tions from the clergy. Philip II . and the republic of 

 Venice forbade the publication, for the exhausted 

 state of their treasuries would not allow them to 

 spare the clergy, and even the emperor Rodolph II. 

 and the archbishop of Mentz would not acknowledge 

 a bull so prejudicial to the rights of sovereigns. Its 

 authority was never admitted in France ; but, in 

 Maples- in particular, from 1568, it excited great dis- 

 turbances; for it was promulgated by the bishops 

 and monks, without the permission of the king, and, 

 according to the ordinance of the pope, the right of 

 government to impose new taxes was denied. Not- 

 withstanding this opposition, the bull received its 

 latest form from pope Urban VIII., in 1627. This 

 pope, in behalf of God, and by virtue of the power 

 committed to the apostles Peter and Paul and himself, 

 excommunicated and anathematized all Hussites, 

 Wickliffites, Lutherans, Zwinglians, Calvinists, 

 Huguenots, Anabaptists, Trinitarians ; all who had 

 fallen off from the Christian faith, all heretics, as well 

 as all those who trusted, received, favoured, or de- 

 fended them ; all who read heretical books, without 

 permission from the papal see ; all who possessed 

 and printed them, or defended them in any way 

 whatever, whether public or private, or on any 

 pretence whatever ; and, finally, all schismatics who 

 obstinately avoided communion with the Romish 

 church. All who appealed from the decision of the 

 pope to a council were threatened with the ana- 

 thema ; and if a university, college, or chapter, 

 with the interdict. Pirates who disturbed the papal 

 sea (" our sea"), from Argentaro to Terracina, and 

 all those who robbed wrecked vessels of the goods of 

 Christians, incurred ;his anathema. Moreover, those 

 princes were anathematized, who imposed new taxes, 

 or increased those already laid, except in those cases 

 in which they were allowed by law or by the special 



E emission of the papal see; also all forgers of papal 

 ;tters ; all who provided Saracens, Turks, or here- 

 tics with horses, arms, money, implements of war, 

 wood, hemp, cordage, or any thing which could be 

 of service to them in making war on Christians and 

 Catholics; all who should prevent the carrying of 

 provisions to the papal court; all who robbed, 

 injured, or murdered travellers to the papal court ; 

 all who abused cardinals, papal ambassadors or 

 bishops ; all who appealed from the commands of the 

 pope or his ambassadors to temporal courts of justice, 

 or avoided the judicial decision of the pope in 

 spiritual concerns, or compelled the clergy to appear 

 before temporal judges, or made laws against the 

 freedom of the church, or interrupted the bishops in 

 the exercise of their judicial power ; all who seized 

 upon the revenue which the pope derived from 

 churches and convents, or imposed taxes' upon the 

 clergy, without the consent of the pope, even though 

 the offender were an emperor or king ; all officers 

 who interfered with the criminal jurisdiction of the 

 clergy ; and, finally, all who should attack or con- 

 quer the papal territory, of which Sicily, Sardinia, and 

 Corsica formed a part. None but the pope can 

 remove this anathema, and he only in the hour oi 

 death, when the person excommunicated has satisfied 

 the offended church. The bull was ordered to be pub- 

 licly posted up at Rome, and once a year, or oftener 

 every bishop was to read it to the assembled people 



This was done at Rome, till the middle of the 18th 

 century, every Maunday Thursday, in the principal 

 ihurches. 



INCOMMENSURABLE, in mathematics; a mag- 

 nitude which cannot be measured by another, taken 

 as unity. Of this kind are, for instance, all square 

 roots which are not whole numbers, as the square 

 root of 12=3,4641 .... and so on indefinitely. 



INCUBATION. Birds, fishes, insects, worms, 

 and reptiles, as is well known, lay eggs, from which 

 the young animals are produced by means of warmth. 

 The four last named classes leave the fecundation of 

 the eggs to the warmth of the sun; birds employ the 

 warmth of their own bodies for this purpose. The 

 process which they use is called incubation. All 

 known birds, with the exception of the cuckoo, dis- 

 charge this office themselves. The cuckoo deposits 

 its eggs in the nest of the hedge-sparrow and other 

 small birds. The ostrich, contrary to the common 

 opinion, sits upon its eggs, the male in company 

 with several females, day and night. Among many 

 sorts of birds, as the common hen, ducks, geese, &c., 

 the business of incubation is confined to the female; 

 among others, especially those which live in pairs, as 

 the dove, lark, sparrow, &c., the male takes part. 

 The female usually leaves the eggs for some hours, 

 about noon, to seek food and bathe herself. In other 

 species of birds, the male remains near the female 

 during the process, protects her from injury, brings 

 her food, &c. This is the case with the canary bird, 

 goldfinch, linnet, &c. The perseverance and devo- 

 tion of the female during the period of incubation is 

 admirable. She submits to the most inconvenient 

 postures, to avoid injuring her eggs, and forgets her 

 food and her companions. If she is compelled by 

 hunger to quit her post, she covers her eggs with 

 feathers, moss, wool, &c. Birds in general become 

 comparatively tame during this period. Others defend 

 their nests with the greatest courage. The domestic 

 hen boldly encounters the largest dog. Only a few 

 birds living in a state of freedom, allow their nests 

 to be disturbed. Many desert them entirely, if a 

 man has displaced the eggs during their absence; for 

 instance, the canary bird. The gradual development 

 of the young bird in the egg has been observed, 

 particularly in the case of the eggs of the domestic hen. 

 The covering of the young bird, when it first leaves 

 the egg, is a sort of down; this is gradually super- 

 seded by feathers. The. little creature remains for 

 some hours or longer, in the nest, under its mother, 

 till it has become accustomed to the external air. 

 The old birds, particularly the female, now manifest 

 the greatest care for their young, in protecting them 

 and providing for their wants. They bring them 

 suitable food, which, when necessary, the mother sof- 

 tens first in her crop. The dirt of the young is thrown 

 out of the nest by the old birds as long as the young 

 remain blind. Water and marsh birds, soon after 

 birth, leave the nest, and follow their mother into the 

 water. The old birds teach them where to find their 

 food. The mother protects them, takes them in 

 stormy weather under her wings, and exposes herself 

 to much inconvenience to save them from suffering. 

 The time of incubation generally varies with the size 

 of the birds. The linnet requires but fourteen days, 

 the common hen twenty-one, and the swan forty-two 

 days. In warm climates, the time of incubation is 

 said to be somewhat shorter. In Africa, the hen is 

 said to sit but thirteen days. With us, too, in very 

 cold weather, geese and hens are known to sit much 

 longer than in warm. The warmth required for 

 fecundating the eggs is about 1 40 Fahr. 



The artificial hatching of eggs is practised in 

 Egypt- In Naples, ovrns for this purpose were 

 constructed in the fourteenth century. But in Egypt, 



D2 



