Syst. Nat. Gmelin, i. 737. D. 1. Vertebrata. Cl. 2. Aves. Ord. 4. Gallinaceae. Cuvier. G. 101. Beak short, strong. Cheeks made smooth, with a naked skin. Feet spurred. Species 1. P. Gallus. The Dunghill Fowl. Willd. Ornith. 154. t. 26. Officinal. Ovum, Lond. The Egg.

Syn. (Euf (F.), Ein, Ey (G.), Ouvo (I.), Huevo (S), Ey (Dutch), Aeg (Dan.), Agg (Swed.), Ovo (Port.), Jaizo (Russ.), Jaie (Pohn.), Wegee (Bohm.), Muna (Finl), Moune (Lapl.), Jemurda (Turk.), Tochem (Pers.), Mennik (Green.), Mannig (Esquimaux), Mootay (Tarn.), Anda (Satis.), Gubbel (Bornouse).

The common domestic fowl is too well known to require any description. The country whence it originally came has not been correctly ascertained, although it is conjectured that it was brought from Persia by the Phoenicians, about 500 years before the birth of Christ.2 As an article of food, it is the least stimulating of animal substances; and the broth made of the young fowl or chicken is not only the best restorative diet for the convalescent, but is also a useful diluent in cholera, dysentery, and other disorders of the bowels. After they are a year old, their flesh becomes less and less digestible; but the capon and poulard retain their tenderness longer.

1 Bulletin des Sciences Medicates, t. i. p. 147.

2 British Zoology, i. 280. There is a variety of the common fowl, named the Dorking Fowl, from being generally procured at Dorking in Surrey, which has two toes behind instead of one. Another variety is found at Mozambique, and at Siam, which has the skin, bones, periosteum, and sometimes the flesh, quite black, and yet it is esteemed good eating.

The egg consists of two distinct fluid matters, the white and the yolk; the membranes which enclose these; and the shell.1

Qualities.-The white of the egg is inodorous and insipid, of a glairy, viscid nature, readily dissolving in water, coagu-lable by a heat of 165° Fahrenheit, and also by acids and alcohol. When coagulated it becomes sapid, and is no longer soluble, either in cold or hot water. From the experiments of Dr. Bostock, it appears to be composed of water 85.0, albumen 1.2, in 100 parts; and, besides, shows traces of un-coagulable matter 2.7, and salts 0.3, sulphureted hydrogen gas, and benzoic acid. The yolk is also inodorous, but has a bland, oily taste; and when agitated with water forms a milky emulsion. When long boiled, it becomes a granular solid, and yields by expression a yellow, insipid, fixed oil. It consists of four constituents, water, oil, albumen, and gelatine; on the presence of the albumen depends the hardness of the boiled yolk. The shell consists of carbonate of lime, phosphate of lime, and animal mucus. When it is burnt, the carbonic acid is dissipated, the animal cement destroyed, and pure lime, with phosphate of lime, obtained. As long as the yolk remains suspended in the centre of the albumen, an egg is supposed to be good; but it spoils as soon as the yolk touches the shell.

The preventing the admission of air through the pores of the shell preserves eggs for a longer period than they otherwise could be kept good. This is effected by covering the egg with grease, or dipping it into lime water. A fresh or good egg appears semitransparent, when placed between the eye and the light: but when it is opaque or irregularly clouded, it must be rejected.

Medical properties and uses.-The yolks of raw eggs are gently laxative, and have been thought serviceable in jaundice and other hepatic obstructions. Beaten up with sugar and wine, they are extremely nutritive, and are consequently useful in convalescences, and other cases of debility. In pharmaceutical operations, the yolks are used for rendering oil and balsams miscible with water; and the whites for clarification.1 The shells are antacid; but possess no advantages over chalk when unburned, or lime when they are burned.

1 Hens have been known to lay eggs when twenty years old. Supplement to Latham, 207.