CHAP. IV.] FARMING FOR LADIES. Ill 



and are to constitute the future chick ; until, 

 at the close of the eighteenth, its first cry may 

 generally be heard. Up to this time, the yolk, 

 — which, as we have already stated, is en- 

 closed within a separate pellicle — appears an 

 inert substance in the formation of the animal; 

 but now it becomes the prominent means of 

 nourishment, by its whole contents passing 

 gradually into the abdomen through the um- 

 bilical chord, or navel, with which it has com- 

 munication ; and thus it increases the body so 

 much in size as to require more room for its 

 existence. Until this moment the little crea- 

 ture lies dormant ; but it then awakes from 

 its torpor, and feeling sufficient vital energy 

 to emerge from confinement, it taps for hours 

 with its beak against the shell of the egg, 

 which it at length breaks and rises into life 

 and liberty a full-formed, feathered chicken. 



Dr. Truman indeed states — in his late in- 

 structive treatise on food, and its influence on 

 health and disease — that " the development 

 of the yolk and white presents some of the 

 most remarkable phenomena manifested by 

 the animal creation. Though both semi-fluid 

 substances, apparently very simple in their 



