CHAPTER XII.

INCUBATING.

Before proceeding further with the explanation of spontaneous generation, or nature's mode of production, perhaps it will be just as well to review the patent process of incubation, which was nature's original plan of production, only conducted on a somewhat larger scale, which will make the subject of spontaneous generation plainer to many, if not clearer to all of the readers of this volume.

But before incubating, let us inquire into the nature of the thing to be incubated. We see the eggs go into the mysterious box, there to remain a given period, during which time we watch them closely, and occasionally examine one, and wait till life appears in another. Still nothing is learned of how the atoms were induced to unite in producing the animated thing. Dr. Dalton, in his famous work on physiology, explains, so far as he could, the chemical constituents of the egg. He informed his readers that it is composed of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen, and that during incubation it takes on more oxygen and throws off carbonic gas. The egg absorbs nearly two per cent of its own weight of oxygen, while the quantity of carbonic acid, thrown off at the same time, amounts to no less than 24 grains, the process going on during incu

bation. He further adds that it is the same in eggs as breathing is in animals.

The foregoing explanation being true, plainly shows that the animating elements necessary to produce life come from the outside of the shell, which is further evidenced by the fact that eggs oiled before going into the incubator will not hatch, because the pores of the shell are closed, and thus exclude the necessary gases from entering the egg. But the learned doctor leaves his students in the shadows concerning the chemical construction of the egg, or how it proceeds to organize life. From a chemical analysis it cannot be learned whether the egg in question was that of a duck, turkey or chicken. The chemists can find no beak-forms nor foot-prints on the yellow island floating in that chrystalline sea to reveal the form or character of its progenitors. Neither can there be found anything which will reveal the spark of life that is supposed to slumber in that masked substance, nor explain the cause of its differentiation. To the chemist the egg is a deep mystery.

Then, if from a chemical analysis, little can be learned of the causes which produced the life within the egg, nor lead to the discovery of its hidden mysteries, it will be necessary to proceed by mental analysis in order to reach any definite conclusion concerning the matter; for reasons must reign where demonstrations fail.

In order to learn the process of incubation it is necessary to understand the organization of its chem

ical constituents; for the egg is an organized body; but it contains no life within its walls any more than unignited wood contains fire; but the elements are there which under proper conditions will produce life in the one or fire in the other. The egg is only a bit of protoplasm, not altogether unlike the jelly-like substance which produced the original progenitors; the chemical elements of which the egg is composed are uot a homogeneous mixture, as they appear to be, but they are perfectly organized in every part, and possessing a given number of nuclei, but which are too subtle in their relations to each other for their individuality to be discovered by any process of analysis yet known to chemists; nevertheless, they exist.

Now, brother scientists, don't dispute that fact; for you know that the brain is composed of chemical divisions, called phrenological organs; yet many scientific men dispute phrenology because they cannot prove the mental divisions of the brain by chemical analysis. Nevertheless, the most ignorant as well as the most learned can testify to the truth of phrenolology, notwithstanding Dr. Dalton says that the brain is a unit. Though we have no reason for denying that different parts of the brain may be occupied by different intellectual faculties, there is no direct evidence which would show this to be the case. The layers of gray matter in each principal portion of the brain is continuous throughout. There is no anatomical division or limit between the different parts, like those between the different ganglia in the other portions of

the nervous system. Consequently such divisions of the cerebrum and cerebellum must be altogether arbitrary in character and not dependent on any anatomical basis. If the physical divisions are not observable in the brain, they are on the skull, and the chemical action of the respective chemical divisions produced them. Then it illy becomes a chemist or any man of science to dispute a subtle point in chemistry, when a glaring fact of like nature defies his skill. The egg contains three distinct physical parts as seen by the eye, which are, first, the cicatricula, the little white speck which is always seen in eggs, and which is the germ corresponding to the ovum of the mammal. Second, the yellow center. Third, the white albumen substance which surrounds it. In their chemical structure these parts in no wise differ from the orignal protoplasm. The egg is a physical growth, containing no active or visible life. The cicatricula is the germ, and contains all of the necessary elements for quickening. The other parts are the food necessary to sustain the germ in the process of its growth. The egg thus organized will produce life.

If the egg is an organized body some force organized it, and that is the agent scientists have long been looking for. The following is my solution for the problem. The brain of the fowl, like all other brains, is composed of chemical divisions, or brain centers, each of which snpplies its part of the life essence to the egg, while it is forming in the fowl. Thus each brain center creates in the egg a chemical nucleus cor

responding to its own center. Each nucleus thus created in the egg is a center and magnet of attraction, and is complete and perfect in its chemical structure, after the male forces are received; after which they are locked up in the shell to protect them for future use. The egg receives its incubating forces from the brain of the fowl, and the brain receives its life essence directly from the zodiacal divisfon of the heavens in a pure state, by the process of inhalation and attraction. They are inhaled into the lungs when the blood receives what it needs and carries it to the brain, when the brain attracts its affinities and utilizes them in creating a life essence. The brain will not attract from the blood what it does not need for that purpose, therefore the blood will not attract from the atmospheric air in the lungs that which the brain does not need, therefore it can not impart to the egg elements foreign to its chemical divisions. Thus each brain center creates in the egg a chemical nucleus corresponding to its own center. Each division thus created in the germ is a magnet, which as soon as the necessary conditions are supplied, is ready to begin the work of organizing its part of the animal body.

The brain of the male operates the same as that of the female, in producing his fecundating forces; when the egg receives the male principle, every center in it becomes fertilized. Thus it can be seen that the egg can not possess a greater nor a less number of centers than is possessed by the brain of the fowl which produced it; neither can the male bird produce fecun