Incubation
in pathology, the maturation of morbific matter introduced into the system. The word has reference, also, to the act of sleeping for oracular dreams.
Artificial incubation is the hatching of eggs by means of heat artificially applied. The Egyptians have long done so successfully by means of heated ovens. Hatching eggs by incubation has become a lucrative business in many sections of the United States. Period of incubation, in pathology, this is the interval that elapses between the introduction of morbific matter into the body, and the commencement of the disease thence resulting.