€liap. 76.] 
AIJGUEY DERIVED FEOM EGGS. 
535 
before the vernal equinox : chickens that are hatched after the 
summer solstice, never attain their full growth, and the more 
so, the later they are produced. 
CHAP. 75. (54.) DEFECTS IN BEOOD-HENS, AND THEIE REMEDIES. 
Those eggs which have been laid within the last ten days, are 
the best for putting under the hen ; old ones, or those which 
have just been laid, will be unfruitful ; an uneven number-^ 
also ought to be placed. On the fourth day after the hen has 
begun to sit, if, upon taking an egg with one hand by the two 
ends and holding it up to the light, it is found to be clear and 
of one uniform colour, it is most likely to be barren, and an- 
other should be substituted in its place. There is also a way 
of testing them by means of water ; an empty egg will float 
on the surface, while those that fall to the bottom, or, in other 
words, are full, should be placed under the hen. Care must 
be taken, however, not to make trial by shaking them, for if 
the organs which are necessary for life become confused, they 
will come to nothing.^* Incubation ought to begin just after 
the new moon ; for, if commenced before, the eggs will be un- 
productive. The chickens are hatched sooner if the weather 
is warm : hence it is that in summer they break the shell on 
the nineteenth day, but in winter on the twenty -fifth only. 
If it happens to thunder during the time of incubation, the 
eggs are addled, and if the cry of a hawk is heard they are 
spoilt. The best remedy against the effects of thunder, is to 
put an iron nail beneath the straw on which the eggs are laid, 
or else some earth from off a ploughshare. Some eggs, how- 
ever, are hatched by the spontaneous action of !N"ature, without 
the process of incubation, as is the case in the dung-hills of 
Egypt. There is a well-known story related about a man at 
Syracuse, who was in the habit of covering eggs with earth, 
and then continuing his drinking bout till they were hatched. 
CHAP. 76. (55.) AN ADGUEY DEEIVED EEOM EGGS BY AN EMPEESS. , 
And, what is even more singular still, eggs can be hatched 
also by a human being. Julia Augusta, when pregnant in 
23 To secure their being more equably covered. 
2* Or rather, will produce chickens hideously deformed. This trick is 
sometimes practised among the country people against those to whom they 
owe a grudge, Aristotle says with a straw mat. 
