THE WONDERS OF A HEN'S EGG.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 88, 2 January 1875, Page 13

THE WONDERS OF A HEN'S EGG.

The following interesting observations on the changes that occur from hour to hour during the incubation of the lien's egg are from. * Saturn's Reflections : ' — The hen has scarcely sat on. her eggs twelve hours before some lineaments of the head and body appear. The heart may be seen to beat at the end of the' second day ; it Has at that time somewhat the form a horse shoe, but no blood yet appears. At the end of two days two vessels of blood are to be distinguished, the pulsation of which is visible j one of these is the ventricle, and the other the root of the great artery. At the fiftieth hour one auricle of the heart appears, resembling a noose folded down upon itself. The beating of the heart is' first observed in the auricle, and afterwards in the ventricle. At the end of seventy hours the wings are distinguishable, and on the head two bubbles are seen for the brain, one for the bill, and two .for the fore and hind' part of the head. Toward the end of the fourth day the two auricles already visible draw nearer to the heart than before. The liver appears toward the fifth day. At the end of seven hours more the lungs and the stomach become visible, and four hours afterwards the intestines and loins of the upper ja;w. At the one hundred and forty-fourth hour two ventricles are visible, and two drops of blood instead of the single one which was seen, before. The seventh day the brain begins to hate some consistency. At the one hundred and nineteenth hour of incubation the bill opens, and the flesh appears in the breast. In four hours more the breast bone is seen. In six hours after this the ribs appear,.forming from the back, and the bill is very visible, as well as the gallbladder. The bill becomes green at the end of two hundred and thirty-six hours ; and if the chicken be taken out of its covering it evidently moves itself. At the two hundred and sixty-fourth hour the eyes appear. At the two hundred aud eighty-eight the ribs are perfect. At the three hundred and thirty-first the spleen draws near the stomach and the lungs to the chest. At the end of three hundred and fifty-five hours the bill frequently opens and shuts; and at the end of the eighteenth day the first cry of the chicken is heard. It afterwards .gets more strength and grows continually; till at length it is enabled to set itself free from* its confinement.

A French journal connected with the metal trade gives the following curious estimate of the value of a piece of iron costing in its rough state If., after being employed for different manufactures. Made into horse-shoes it is worth 3f . ; into agricultural implement*, 4f . : forged into ornaments, 45f . ; converted into needles, 75f . j into steel buttons, 900f . ; employed as polished steel for decorative purposes, 2,000f . } and made into shirt studs, 6,0000f,