ORDER GALLINiE. 207 



have left us nothing but a few receipts on this subject, so 

 inefficient as not to merit transcription. 



Under the reign of Augustus, Livia, the wife of that 

 emperor, having heard that a man had succeeded in hatching 

 chickens, by the mere heat of his body, remaining in bed on 

 the eggs, for the same length of time as hens employ in incu- 

 bation, bethought herself of hatching an egg by keeping it 

 in her bosom. It produced a little cock, with a handsome 

 crest. 



This circumstance excited great curiosity and interest. 

 Attempts were renewed to find out the means of supplying 

 the place of hens, and of performing this operation on a 

 grand scale, and without employing the heat of dung. It 

 would appear that the efforts made at this time of which we 

 speak were more successful. The mode adopted seems 

 indeed to have been better. According to Pliny, eggs were 

 deposited on straw, in a place heated by a gentle fire, and 

 turned regularly by a man appointed for the purpose. From 

 these the chickens issued, precisely on the same day as they 

 do from under the hens. 



We are ignorant if the Romans availed themselves of this 

 discovery for any length of time, or turned it to any great 

 advantage. The probability is that they did not ; for, from 

 the time of Pliny to that of the crusaders, and beyond it, we 

 find no mention of artificial incubation in the history of any 

 people, except the Egyptians. But on the revival of the arts 

 and sciences in Europe, we find the Egyptian method itself 

 transmitted, in succession, into Malta, Sicily, Italy, and 

 France. We find a grand Duke of Florence causing to be 

 brought from the town of Berme, in Egypt, one of those 

 inheritors of the secret of the priests, to direct an oven for 

 the hatching of eggs. Then we read of a king of Naples, 

 Alphonso the Second, establishing one at Pongeal, his country- 

 house ; and finally, Charles the Eighth of France had one 



