Artificial Incubation. 
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methylated spirits (pure alcohol) — 20 drops of this liquid arc enclosed in the capsule. This will boil at a heat 
of 103 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, and, expanding to an enormous degree, gently raises the lever which shuts 
off or reduces the flame of the lamp when the heat on top of the eggs in the egg-chamber reaches 104 
degrees. 
The first notices of Hatching Chickens Artificially are to be found in the works of Democritus 
(Geoponica), Aristotle, Diodorus, and I'liny, and the art has been extensively practised in China and l'>gypt 
from an unknown period of time. The Chinese deposit the eggs in sand contained in wooden boxes, [)laced 
on iron plates, and kept moderately heated. The knowledge of the I'^gyjnian method of hatching 
is confined to the inhabitants of Berme and a few adjacent places in the Delta, who travel about the 
country to perform the process at the proper season. The number of Hatching Ovens, known as Mammals, 
was in the beginning of the last century 386, and the number of eggs hatched in each is reported to be from 
40,000 to 80,000, and the Bermes who conduct the process are obliged to return two chickens for every 
three eggs given them. Dr. Graves states 200 lbs. weight of litter, or dung of cattle, are daily consumed in 
heating the oven. This latter is built of bricks, about 9 feet in height, with a gallery in the middle 3 feet 
wide and 8 feet high, on each side of which is a double row of rooms, each 3 feet wide, 4 feet high, and 
12 to 15 feet in length, each capable of holding from four to five thou.sand eggs, deposited in such a manner 
so as not to touch one another, and placed upon a mat or bed of flax. At the outside of one angle of the 
building there is a fire-place, from which the heat is conveyed to both stories by means of flues during three 
or four hours daily at stated intervals. Ventilators are also used, lest the heat should be too great, the 
standard of temperature being that of the warm baths of the country. About the middle of January the 
ovens are inspected and repaired, and as they are public, and as each has a circuit of fifteen or twenty 
villages, notice is given to the inhabitants, so that they may come and bring their eggs. As soon as a 
sufficient quantity of eggs are collected, they are put into the rooms that are to serve for the first brood, but 
only one half of those which the building contains. The eggs are ranged three deep in the lower rooms of 
each oven, on a, bed of chopped straw and dust, which mixture Aristotle, probably, mistook for dung. As 
the fuel burns away, it is renewed two or three times a day, and the same at night, with the same precaution 
each time to uncover for a moment the hole in the roof, both for the purpose of renewing the fresh air 
and for keeping the eggs from the first impression of heat. The fire is thus continued during ten days. 
After ten days the fires are discontinued, the oven then being hot enough to complete the process. 
A long experience, a skilful hand, and the application of the eggs against the eyebrows are the 
only thermometers used by the operators for regulating the temperature. During this time the 
eggs are often turned and examined, and those that are unfertile are thrown aside. On the eleventh 
day the second batch is forwarded by placing fresh eggs in the interior cells of the ovens left empty in 
the first instance, and the furrows of the upper cells are filled with lighted fuel. As soon as the fire is 
lighted in these ovens it is put out in the others, so that the eggs are no longer heated but by the fire 
lighted in the former, and only receive heat through the side windows in the upper chamber of the ovens, 
which remain constantly open. The second brood thus got forward. The attendants take from the lower 
rooms of the ovens first used one half of the eggs to lay them out on the floor of the upper rooms. This 
change is made because these eggs require the greater care the nearer they draw to the time of hatching. 
When the twentieth day of incubation has arrived, some chickens are already seen breaking their shells. 
The greater part hatch on the following day, few hatching on the twenty-second day. The strongest 
chickens are taken to the room allotted for receiving them, to be distributed to those who furnish the eggs, 
and the weakly ones are kept for a day or two longer. 
To Mr. Le Bert, of Ohio, America, we are indebted for the following interesting and instructive notes 
on Artificial Incubators, published in " Farm Poultry." This gentleman states in regard to the tank it makes 
very little difference how a machine is heated, be it by hot air or water. As the air or water does not come 
in contact with the eggs, but acts merely as a vehicle to carry the heat, it is very obvious that one will 
answer as well as the other. This fact cannot be controverted. What difference there is in actual practice 
