POULTRY. 



face at any required intermediate de- 

 gree within the above range, and such 

 heat maintained unaltered, without 

 trouble or difliculty, for any length 

 of time, and that • by means of this 

 absolute and complete command over 

 the temperature obtained by this ma- 

 chine, the impregnated egg of any 

 bird, not stale, placed within its influ- 

 ence at the proper degree of warmtli, 

 is, at the expiration of its natural 

 time, elicited into life, without the 

 possibility of failure, which is some- 

 times the case with eggs subjected to 

 the caprice of their natural parent.' 



'•That chickens are thus hatched 

 in considerable numbers is unques- 

 tionable, upward of thirty thousand 

 having^been already brought into ex- 

 istence by this single eccaleobion ma- 

 chine ; nor has any difficulty been 

 found in the subsequent rearing of 

 those chickens, when proper yards 

 and suitable temperature were pro- 

 vided, more than m the natural way ; 

 indeed, in some respects less so, as the 

 losses sustained in poultry by the sud- 

 den changes of the weather, and the 

 influence of dampness in particular, 

 and accidents from various causes, 

 are very considerable. Supposing Mr. 

 Bucknell's experiment to answer the 

 purpose in every respect, the increase 

 m the production of poultry might be 

 rendered incalculably great by the 

 adoption of his principle on a great 

 scale, wherever the essentials of a 

 dry soil, warmth, and proper build- 

 ings can at the same time be supplied. 



" ' It must have struck even the 

 most superficial observer, that the 

 extraordinary fecundity of gallinace- 

 ous fowls is a wise and most benev- 

 olent dispensation of nature to pro- 

 vide the more abundantly food for 

 man, as, in those tribes of birds not 

 suited for his table, the female lays 

 no more eggs than she can incubate. 

 With respect, therefore, to domestic 

 {joultry, the most nutritious of all hu- 

 man food, this rich provision of a 

 bounteous providence is, for the first 

 time, available to Europe.' 



'• The eccaleobion machine, capa- 

 ble of containing 2000 eggs, resem- 

 bles an oblong box, nine feet in length, 

 G <3 o 



three feet in breadth, and the same 

 in height. It has no connexion with 

 the walls, against which it is placed 

 on the table on which it stands ; its 

 regulating power is within. 



" The following striking passage, 

 from Mr. Bucknell's work ' On Arti- 

 ficial Incubation,' above alluded to, 

 will show the importance of this sub- 

 ject in its commercial and domestic 

 bearings. 



" Mr. Bucknell observes (page 16), 

 ' "We call the Egyptians barbarous ; 

 the procuring, however, by art and 

 industry, an abundant supply of that 

 necessary of life, good animal food, 

 is no evidence of barbarism. If 

 the population of the United King- 

 dom, which, as respects Egypt, is as 

 twenty-four to two, were as well 

 supplied with this artificial produc- 

 tion as Es^j^pt, It would require, not 

 92,000,000^, but 1,104,000,000 of poul- 

 try annually, for them to be as well 

 fed in this respect as the uncivilized 

 natives of Egypt. But how stands 

 the account in this matter '. Full one 

 third of our population subsist almost 

 entirely, or, rather, starve, upon po- 

 tatoes alone ; another third have, in 

 addition to this edible, oaten or infe- 

 rior wheaten bread, with one or two 

 meals of fat pork, or the refuse of 

 the shambles, per week ; while a con- 

 siderable majority of the remaining 

 third seldom are able to procure an 

 ample daily supply of good butcher's 

 meat, or obtain the luxury of poultry 

 from year to year. 



" ' On the Continent of Europe the 

 population is still in a worse condi- 

 tion : fish, soups made from herbs, 

 a stuff called bread, made from every 

 variety of grain, black, brown, hard, 

 and sour, such as no Englishman 

 could eat ; olives, chestnuts, the pulpy 

 saccharine fruits, roots, stalks, and 

 leaves, and not unfrequently the bark 

 of trees; sawdust, blubber, train-oil, 

 with frogs and snails, make up and 

 constitute a good part of the food of 

 the greater portion of the inhabitants 

 of Europe. There is no other cause 

 for this than the excessive ignorance 

 of its population.' 



" The contemplation of the pro- 



625 



