285 
EGG 
fcy feathered and fome other animals, from which their 
young is produced .—Eggs are perhaps the higheft, mod 
nourifhingand exalted, of animal food, and moll indigefti- 
ble. Arbuthnot .—-The fpawn or fperm of other creatures: 
Ev’ry infect of each different kind, 
Tn its own egg, chear’d by the folaV rays, 
Organs involv’d and latent life difplays. Blackmore, 
Any thing fafhioned in the lhape of an egg.—There was 
taken a great gl^fs-bubble with a long .neck, fuch as 
cliemifts are wont to call a philofophical egg. Boyle. 
The animal phyfiology of the egg, with the procefs of 
incubation, offers an enquiry of the molt intereiling kind 
to tliofe who delight in the curious operations of nature: 
and for which fee Comparative Anatomy, vol. i. 
p. 663.—An early inveitigation of the powers of the pa¬ 
rent bird in producing its young fir It taught the Egyptians 
(that once learned and fcientific people) the method of 
hatching-chickens by artificial meaiN. This has, for 
many centuries, confiituted a regular trade in Cairo and 
its vicinity. Its practice, fays Mi;. Browne, in his recent 
Travels in Egypt, appears to have proceeded from the 
experience that, at a certain feafon, the eggs foftered only 
by the hens are commonly u’nprolific : of thofe hatched 
in the ovens, on the contrary, not quite one-third is loll. 
The ovens wherein thefe eggs are hatched, are conftruifled 
in the moll Ample manner,-confining only of a low arched 
apartment of clay. Two rows of Ihelves are formed, 
and the eggs are placed on them fo as not to touch each 
other. They are (lightly moved five or fix times in 
twenty-four hours; and the whole tiipe they are in the 
oven does not exceed twenty-two days, when the chickens 
eafily free themfelves from the (heljs. All pofiible care 
is taken to diffufe the heat equably throughout; and 
there is but one fmall aperture, large enough to admit a 
man. Hooping. During the fir ft eight days the heat is ren¬ 
dered great ; and, during the laft eight, is gradually di- 
minifhed, till at length, when the young brood is ready 
to come forth, it is reduced to the (late of the natural at- 
mofphere. At the end of thefirft eight days, it is known 
which eggs will not be productive. Thofe who have 
eggs to be hatched, bring them to the mafterof the oven, 
and contract to pay fo much a hundred ; and when the 
chickens appear, he receives his money on delivering 
them. The eggs which have not fucceeded are required 
to be produced ; and the ovensare confidered in the light 
of public property. It has been calculated that 92,640,000 
chidkens are by this means annually brought into life in 
Egypt. 
M. Reaumur, contemplating this practice of the 
Egyptians, was led, jay a number of experiments, to re¬ 
duce the art of hatching eggs to fixed principles. He 
found, by experience, that tiie heat neceffary for this pur- 
pole is ndarly the fame with that marked 32 on his ther¬ 
mometer, or that marked 96 on Fahrenheit’s. This de¬ 
gree of heat is nearly that of the Ikin of the hen, and, 
what is remarkable, of the fkin of all other domeftic 
fowls, and probably of all other kind; of birds. The 
degree of heat which brings about the developement of 
the cygnet, the gofling, and the turkey-pout, is the fame 
as tirat which fits for hatching the canary, and in all pro¬ 
bability, the (mailed humming-bird : the difference is 
only in the time during which this heat ought to be com¬ 
municated to the eggs of different birds; it will bring 
'-■,-the canary-bird to perfection in eleven or twelve days, 
.while the turkey-will require twenty-feven or twenty- 
eight. After many experiments, M. Reaumur found, 
-that ftoves heated by means of a baker’s oven, fucceeded 
better than thofe made hot by layers of dung: and the 
furnaces of glafs-houles and thofe of the melters of me¬ 
tals, by means of pipes to convey heat into a room, might, 
no doubt, be made to anfwer the fame purpofe. As to 
•the form of the ftoves, no great nicety is required. A 
chamber over an oven will do very well. Nothing more 
•Is necefiary than to afeertain the degree.of heat; which 
Vol. VI. No. 349. 
E G G 
may be done by melting a piece of butter of the fize of 
a walnut, with half as much tallow, and putting it into 
a phial. This will ferve to indicate the heat with furfi- 
cient exaclnefs: for when it is too great, this mixture 
will become as liquid as oil ; and when the heat is too 
fmall, it will remain fixed in a lump : but it will flow 
like a thick fyrup,, upon inclining the bottle, if the (love 
be of the proper temperature. Great attention therefore 
fhould be given to keep the heat always at this degree, 
by letting in frefli air if it be too great, .or (hutting the 
Hove if it be too fmall : and that all the eggs in the ftove 
may equally (hare the irregularities of the heat, it will 
be necefiary to fhift them from the Tides to the centre; 
and thus to imitate the hens, who are frequently feen to 
make life of their bills, to pufh to tire outer parts thofe 
eggs that were neared: to the middle of their nefts, and 
to bring into the middle fuch as lay neareft the Tides. For 
the purpofe of hatching eggs, M. Reaumur has invented 
a fort of boxes without bottoms lined with fur. Thefe, 
which he calls artificial parents, not only (belter the chick¬ 
ens from the injuries of the air, but afford a kindly 
warmth, fo that they prefently. take the benefit of their 
Ihelteras readily as they would have done under the wings 
of a hen. After hatching, it is necefiary to keep the 
chickens, for fome time, in a room artfully heated and 
furnilhed with thefe boxes ; but afterwards they may be 
expofed to the air in the court-yard, in which it may not 
be amifs to place one of thefe artificial parents to (belter 
them, if there fliould be-occalion for it. As to the man- 
nerof feeding the young brood, they are generally a whole 
day after being hatched, before they take any food at all; 
and then a few crumbs of bread may be given them for a. 
day or two, after which they will begin to pick up infects 
and grafs for themfelves. But to fave the trouble of at¬ 
tending them, cocks may be taught to watch them in 
the fame manner as hens do ; and to lead them about, in 
fearch of their food, juft the fame as if hatched under a 
hen. 
With regard to the prefervation of eggs, it is obferved 
that the egg is always quite full when it is firft laid by 
the lien ; but from that time it gradually becomes lefs 
and lefs fo, to its decay : and, however compact and clofe 
its (hell may appear, it is neverthelefs perforated with a 
multitude of fmall holes, though too minute for the dif- 
cernment of our eyes, the effedb of which is a daily de- 
creafe of matter within tjie egg, from the time of its 
being laid ; and the perfpiration is much quicker in hot 
weather than in cold. To preferve the egg frefli, there 
needs no more than to flop its tranfpiration, the method 
of doing which is, by (lopping up thofe pores with mat¬ 
ter which is not foluble in watery fluids : and on this 
principle it is, that all kinds of varnifh, prepared with, 
(pint of wine, will preferve eggs frefli fora long time, if 
they are carefully rubbed all over the (hell : tallow, or 
mutton fat, is alfo good for this purpofe ; for fuch as are 
rubbed over with this, will keep as long as thofe coated 
over with varnifh. 
A method of preferving eggs has been lately offered 
to the public, by Mr. William Jayne, of Sheffield, in 
Yorkfhire, under the fanCtion of letters patent, dated 
February 8, 1791, which deferibes the invention as fol¬ 
lows: Take one bulliel of quicklime, thirty-two ounces 
of fait,-eight ounces of cream of tartar, 'and mix the 
whole together, witli as much water as will reduce the 
compofition to that confidence which will caufe an egg, 
put into it, to fwim with its top juft above the liquid; 
then put, and keep, the eggs therein, whereby they may 
b.e preferved found and Tweet for the fpace of two years 
at the lead. 
To EfijG, v. a. [eggia, to incite, Ifiandic; e^jian, Sax.] 
To incite ; to inftigate ; to* provoke to action : for this, 
edge is fometimes ignorantly tiled.—Study becomes pleii- 
fant to him who is puYfuing his genius, and whole ardour 
of inclination eggs him forwards, and carrieth him through 
every obftacle. Der/iam. 
4 D - EkG* 
