Figure 8.—Egg After 192 Hours.
At this stage the operator should mark all doubtful eggs and return them to the machine, as he will find plenty of room there. He will soon become expert, and can detect life and death in the germ at a glance. Experience alone will give the operator an insight into this business. The incipient stages of decay, though easily detected by the expert, cannot be intelligently described by him. The application of a little heat for the short space of twenty days to an inert mass, developing it into active, intelligent life, is simply wonderful. The process and effect he can easily describe, but the procreative power behind it all is beyond his ken. Should a little duckling be taken from the shell on the thirteenth or fourteenth day it will resemble Figure 9. It will kick and struggle several moments after its removal. The yolk is not yet absorbed, but the process is just beginning and will continue until the twenty-fourth day, when it will be nearly absorbed. The egg, from the fourteenth day rapidly assumes a darker hue.
