20 The Egg. 



ligament attached to the vitelline membrane on each side 

 and also to the testaceous membrane or the fibrous inner cov. 

 ering of the egg. This membrane is drawn down at the ob. 

 tuse end of the egg, forming a space (7) between it and the 

 shell, which is known as the air-space ; and this forms an elas- 

 tic cushion for the support of the yelk, while the spiral liga- 

 ments, called the chalazse, act as a spring to protect the yelk 

 against injury and support it as it floats in the albuminous 

 layers. The cicatricula, a yellowish white disc, seen in the 

 surface of the yelk of a fertilized egg, and shown at 8, con- 

 tains the germinal vesicle and is connected by a canal with the 

 center of the yelk, which is formed of white globules, while 

 the rest of the yelk is made up of yellow granulations, desig- 

 nated vitelline globules. 



Such being the character of an egg, it is seen to be made 

 up of the most fragile materials, inclosed in a comparatively 

 strong protecting shell, and supported by springs from the jars 

 to which it may naturally be subjected by the movements it 

 may undergo in the nest during incubation. But nature has 

 made no provision for artificial conditions, as transportation 

 by railroads and wagons, and the jars and jolts which occur in 

 such transportation, and as the interior of the egg is balanced 

 in a very delicate manner only to meet natural conditions, it 

 is by no means prepared for those unnatural ones to which it 

 is subjected when eggs are carried hundreds or thousands of 

 miles over railroads, in freight-cars which are jostled and 

 jarred and bumped forcibly in transit ; consequently it is very 

 easy to destroy the vitality of an egg by shaking it ; and I have 

 met farmers who, when forced to dispose of the eggs of costly 

 pure-bred fowls to the stores, killed them by holding them in 

 one hand and jarring it smartly on the palm of the other hand 

 Such a jar would evidently rupture the spiral ligaments and 

 set the yelk free, or possibly rupture the delicate covering 

 membrane of the yelk, or disturb its several layers and dis- 

 place the attachment of the germinal vesicle, which is the seat 

 of the vitality of the egg. 



