EARLY EXPERIMENTS. 263 



and in every other part of the convent where she 

 might hope to meet with anybody. This trans- 

 port, however, was a little abated, when she saw 

 that part of the chickens which ought to have been 

 hatched, had perished in their shells almost at the 

 end of their time. This was evidently occasioned 

 by their having been exposed to too great a 

 heat. From this time the energetic nun became 

 qualified to repeat much more successful trials, 

 but the want of eggs and some other accidents, 

 caused her to postpone to another time experi- 

 ments that might have produced more chickens 

 than the first." 



For a time artificial incubation was even a 

 fashionable pursuit at Paris. Reaumur read a 

 paper detailing his experiments and their success, 

 which was copied into various periodicals, and 

 thus was the means of exciting a rage after this 

 art in Paris, which extended even to the noblest 

 persons in the land. Reaumur's gardener became 

 as successful in hatching chickens as in forcing 

 plants, and by the employment of the same means. 

 "Nor," says Reaumur, "have my flower or kitchen- 

 garden been the less cultivated for it." Noblemen, 

 following Reaumur's directions, began hatching 



