710 



Popiilcir Science Monthly 



mmimmm^^. 



of rubber tubing through wliicli ice-cold 

 water from a lank susijcndeil from the 

 top of the henhouse was run to the 

 eggs. When the mothering instinct be- 

 came too great for a hen to resist she 

 would mount these joke-eggs. When her 

 warm breast came in contact with the 

 frigid eggs, she would leap off with a 

 cackle of anguish, and thereafter be cured 

 of the setting 

 habit. 



Was it not 

 ingenious? In- 

 deed it was. 



A contraj)- 

 tion devised 

 for the same 

 purpose and 

 also unearthed 

 from the scin- 

 tillating pages 

 of the Patent 

 Office Gazette 

 is displayed 

 pictorially in 

 these pages. 

 It has a de\'il- 

 ish ingenuit\' 

 all unto itself. 

 Look at this 

 picture in 

 which a hen 

 may be ob- 

 served leaping 

 angrily from a 

 nest of sjiikes. 

 This |iointed 

 warning to IJie 

 hen who aches 

 to set, belongs 

 to the same 

 category as 

 the machines 

 brought out for 



slow torture at the time of the Spanisli 

 Inquisition. Some jirchistoric fragment 

 of barbarism in all of us makes a tlexice 

 of this sort unusually interesting. Un- 

 questionably, if lliis iiu'ention were in- 

 stalled in a barn\ard, the farmer-owner 

 could charge ten cents admission, and 

 the publii- would get a generous iiii 

 cents' worth in watching fowl agon\'. 

 Can \<)U jHit your own soul througii the 

 miserx' to which tliewduld-bi'-inotlicr iien, 

 willi the <lc!icac\- \vlii<li liial feeling is 

 sup|)()si'd to bring, >ulnnils hersell wluii 



she settles calmly down, with every 

 honorable intention, upon a nest of 

 naked, brutal sjiikes? 



The hen-house-of-horrors, if properly 

 furnished with lliese machines of malice, 

 would not satisfy itself merely with ice- 

 cold eggs and spiked nests. Other in- 

 ventions, if they were attached, would 

 transform the peaceful hen into a pic- 

 turesque spec- 



r:^ 





^m 



i 1 1 « « 



When the would-be-mother hen approaches this 

 nest she is received by an array of sprouting 

 spikes. The man who conceived the idea 

 probably derived it from a volume upon the 

 Spanish Inquisition. It is indeed most effective. 

 The hen squats upon the spurs; and she arises 

 with cackles of wrath, cured of her desire to set 



purposes of inllicting d 



tiuie, a cross 

 1 etwccn a tax- 

 icab and an 

 infernal ma- 

 ( hine. In fact, 

 if the hen were 

 p r (J I) c r 1 y 

 i(|uipped with 

 all the "useful 

 (I e \' 1 c e s 

 w liich man has 

 iliouglufully 

 ;;nd modestly 

 pro^■ided, she 

 would not only 

 be bound, 

 gagged, fetter- 

 ed, spiked and 

 Uozcn ; but her 

 \ ision would 

 l:i' guided by 

 ijcgglcs; she 

 would stamp 

 each egg as it 

 was laid with 

 a trade-mark. 

 Altogether 

 she would bear 

 so much me- 

 chanical mis- 

 cellany upon 

 her innocent 

 ^•oung shoul- 

 ders that she could neither sit in the for- 

 bidden nest, run amuck in the forbitlden 

 g.irden, tl\- into the forbidden air, nor, 

 indied. could she la>' the his(i()Us egg, 

 nor hatch the necess.ir\ and succulent 

 \(iung springling. 



Human sympathy with the helpless un- 

 fortunates would promj)! one to say, "Let 

 I lie poor creatures alone!" Nevertheless, 

 tile farmer ma\- see in the numerous in- 

 \-entions menlioiied lu'lptul means of 

 augmenting .ind prolecling hiseggsupply, 

 and if so, liiini.inil.iri.ins h.i\-e no right 

 to hinder him \\i\\\\ inipl(i\iiH; them. 



