286 THE LTFE OF A BIRD. 



oven has the right degree of heat, or whether it 

 has too little of it. The heat of the oven will 

 render the matter of the thermometer as fluid as 

 oil when it is excessive, and it will be known to 

 be too weak when it remains perfectly coagulated ; 

 it will have the requisite degree when the matter 

 in the bottle has the consistence of a soft piece of 

 dough ; a small portion of which may happen to 

 run when the glass or bottle is inclined, in the 

 same manner as a syrup grown too thick would do." 

 This instrument, simple and even ludicrous as it 

 appears, does the philosopher, who could stoop to 

 the necessities of his more ignorant and poorer 

 countrymen, not less honour as a man of science, 

 than credit as a man of benevolence. It is curious 

 that a somewhat similar substance to that here 

 employed by Reaumur for a rude thermometer, has 

 been adopted in an ingenious instrument for giv- 

 ing warning in the event of fire in any particular 

 apartment. 



It is important to know, that a very small excess 

 of heat is sufficient to destroy the life of the 

 chick at this period. A number of experiments 

 have shown, that if it is exposed to a temperature 

 of 130, or a little under, the life of the germ is 



