44 On the Egyptian system of Artificial [latching. [Jan. 



door of the superior stove, but through that of the inferior one, arrang- 

 ing the eggs below ; afterwards standing up he pushes his head and 

 arms through the hole of the roof, and arranges those above. 



The eggs which have not been in the oven eight days they call ^Sy^ 

 (el tari) the fresh. I have eaten some of them after two or three 

 days baking, and they were good. Towards the sixth or seventh 

 day, they look at them before a light. If the egg appears opaque and 

 obscure, it is inferred that the operation will succeed; on the contrary, 

 if it is transparent and white, they conclude that the chicken will not be 

 formed. The people who keep the oven eat these eggs or sell them. 

 They have the appearance and taste of boiled eggs. Those which 

 go on without fire after the eighth day they call £>^« (meldh) the 

 good. Lastly, those which have continued more than twelve days 

 in the cells they call J^Xw.*n (el mesku) which has taken ; or that 

 wherein the chicken is already formed. The cells where eggs are 

 divided half below and half above, as they are placed after the 

 fourteenth day, have their doors constantly stopped with great care, 

 During the last days of the process the hole of the top of the vault is not 

 only stopped with tow, but with a great deal of earth upon the tow. 

 Four or five days before the end of the operation, the door in the upper 

 stove being open, as well as the hole of the vault, the thermometer in- 

 dicates 26°, the hole being stopped 274°, and the door being stopped 27°. 

 Two days before the birth of the chicken, being all well stopped, the 

 temperature reached to 28°, and the day before to 28|°. At the mo- 

 ment that the chickens are coming to life the heat is 28^° ; and in the 

 inferior stove, in which there are about a thousand recently born, 30° ; 

 an augmentation which proceeds no doubt from the animal heat of the 

 young birds, since there is no fire in the room, nor has there been any 

 in it for thirteen days. 



It is also curious to observe that the temperature varied during 

 the last few days ; this probably is the effect of the animal heat which 

 begins to develope itself in the inside of the eggs. 



If we reconsider all the facts I have detailed, we shall see that the 

 hatching of which we are speaking, consists only in applying to the egg- 

 equally and regularly during twenty-one complete days, a degree of heat 

 which beginning with 33° or 34° of Reaumur, falls to 27^° or 27°, and 

 rises again to 28° or 29° with the help of the animal caloric, produced 

 by nature in the process of hatching. 



As soon as the chickens are born, the egg-shells are thrown away. 

 The eggs of the inferior stove are carried to the upper, and the chicken 

 to the inferior ; which is reserved for them. These are treated with 



