BY D. EMBLETOlSr, M.D. 47 



which represents the principle of good, whence the (equivocal) 

 Latin proverb, '' Ah ovo ad mahmi,^^ which signified, '' from good 

 to evil," but which properly meant '' from the egg to the apple," 

 the Latins being accustomed to begin their dinners with hard- 

 boiled eggs and to end them with apples, a custom which is still 

 preserved among numerous Italian families. 



''But to begin ah ovo also means to begin at the beginning. 

 Horace (Ars Poetica) says that he does not begin from the twin 

 eggs the description of the Trojan war; "nee gemino helium Tro- 

 joMum orditur ah ovo,'' alluding to the egg of Leda, to which the 

 Greek proverb ''Come out of the egg" [ex oou exelthen) also 

 alludes, said of a very handsome man, and referring to fair Helen 

 and her two luminous brothers, the Dioskuroi. {Zoological My- 

 thology, or the Legends of Animals^ by Angelo de Gubernatis. 

 Vol. II., p. 291, 1872.) 



Sir J. G. Wilkinson, in Yol. III. of "Manners and Customs 

 of the Ancient Egyptians," 1837, informs us at page 20, "that 

 the purposes to which the eggs" of the Ostrich "were applied 

 are unknown ; but we may infer, from a religious prejudice in 

 their favour among the Christians of Egypt, that some supersti- 

 tion was connected with them, and that they were suspended in 

 .the temples of the ancient Egyptians, as they still are in the 

 churches of the Copts." In a note he adds, "They, the Copts, 

 consider them the emblems of watchfulness. Sometimes they 

 use them with a different view ; the rope of their lamps is passed 

 through the egg^ in order to prevent the rats coming down and 

 drinking the oil, as we were assured by the monks of Dayr 

 Antonios." 



The Paschal, Paschall, Pask, or Paste eggs distributed at 

 Easter, appear to have been originally dyed red, and were com- 

 monly given and received as symbols of death and resurrection. 

 In the present day they are gaily variegated in colours, silvered, 

 gilded, and so forth, and are commonly in the North of England 

 the mere playthings of children of both sexes. 



It is from the study of the ovum that we have been made 



