The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1883-04-12
A Unique Study in Vital Force.

A writer in the Country Gentleman
discusses the question: How much vital
force does n hen consume in Matching
an egg? We guarantee that there is no
merely mortal man in the United States
that can answer this question of-hand.
Of course, Prof. Sumner, of Yale Col
lege, can. The proceedings of the
American Association for the Advance
ment of Science make no mention of it,
nor, so far as we are aware, has it ever
walked to ecstacy the miscellaneous
muse of Walt Whitman. And yet, now
that the question is asked everybody
will be impressed with its interest and
Importance and fall to wondering why
it did not come to the forefront of dis
cussion long ago, with the tariff, the
open Polar sea, the cOeducatiOn of the
sexes, the limit of consecutive quail
eating and other of humanity's leading
problems. 1t has frequently been sus-
pected that too many hens have been
addicted to the consumption of an inor-
dinate amount of vital force in Matching
eggs. On no other plausible theory can
the presence of so many tough hens in
the market be accounted for OF course,
the only sensible way to check this
waste and thus prevent hens from
undermining their constitutions, is TO de-
termine precisely what amount offorce
goes to Matching, and then hit upon
some scheme to prevent hens from eX-
pending more than the determined
amount 1t ought not to be difficult TO
mature such a scheme. A modification
of the current bell-punch, so arranged
that it would ring just as soon as the
hen had reached the force limit, would
appear to be the thing. OF course, it
would be the duty If the man who own
ed the polsltry-yard just as soon as he
heard the bell riag to walk up to the
hen and request her firmly but kindly
to contribute no more Of her vital force
to the business in hand. If the hen de-
clined to obey after being reasoned
with, the man might find it necessary to
fling a patent incubator at her. After
the incubator had mangled ten or a
dozen hens beyond recognition the man
could safely count upon having the
force limit respected by every one of
his fowls engaged in Matching.
1t only remains to state the result OF
the Investigations pursued by this writ
er in The Country Ge1lttenl0D in the
field of applied hens. Starting with
the undisputed proposition that cheat
can be measured by force and force by
heat" he logically concludes that. it is
possible to learn the mechanical force
used up in Matching chicken from an
egg by measuring the consumption Of
heat by the egg during the process. So
far so good. But his next step is not so
satisfactory, for he introduces not a hen
but a pine-wood incubator. Now a
pine-wOod Indian is perhaps a more
agreeable gentleman than a human
Indian. But when it comes to incuba-
tors the hen is 50 greatly to be preferred
to any other variety that it is positively
amazing that this bold investigator
should have discarded her. But barring
this serious error in judgment, he per-
forms his task in most commendable
manner. After determining the loss Of
heat inside of his pine-woOd incubator
he loaded it up with twenty eggs and
placed it behind the chimney, "where
the temperature never varied from 80
degrees" The experiments that fol-
lowed convinced him that the vital force
employed in Matching eggs - would be
sufficient td raise about LOO pounds
one foot high every minute during the
period of twenty-one days.
This is considerable vital force, and
the student Of political economy may
well ask himself If a hen or other incu-
bator that can raise about / 400 pounds
one foot high every minute, and keep
repeating the feat for twenty-one CON
secutive days. has not mistaken It's vo-
cation in devoting itself to Matching
eggs. Judiciously used, that much
vital force ought to be equal to knock
ing out Sullivan or performing some
handsome feats of barn-raising or pile
driving We are living in an uncom-
monty scientific a9e.-N y. Tribune