STRUCTURE OF EGGS. 107 



circumstances, we believe that such an analogy, as 

 M. Dutrochet remarks, will not stand the test of 

 observation. That the increasing- weight of the egg, 

 however, may, by stretching the slender attaching 

 pedicle, so attenuate the blood-vessels that supply 

 it vv'ith nourishment, as to greatly weaken and ulti- 

 mately to break it, we may with some probability 

 suppose. 



Before dropping into the egg-tube, there is no 

 white nor shell, both of which are formed there by 

 the addition of the glutinous substance called albu- 

 men, and of the calcareous or limy substance consti- 

 tuting the shell, as we shall immediately shew in 

 detail. 



From ill health or accidents, eggs are sometimes 

 excluded from the eu:g-tube before the shell has begun 

 to be formed, and in this state they are provineially 

 termed oon eggs. 



When we examine the egg of a hen in the egg- 

 organ, we perceive numerous blood-vessels branching 

 in a sort of hair-like, very irregular net-work over the 

 whole surface, through the substance of the envelope or 



. Embryo impregnated Egg. 



membrane which encloses the whole, and which may 

 be called the outer skin or covering, as there is within 

 this another membrane similarly furnished with blood- 

 tessels for supplying nourishment to the yolk and 



