260 ARTHUR M. BANTA AND ROSS AIKEN GORTNER. 



in the photograph by the somewhat more transparent spots, in 

 which were eggs, near the edges of the white bunch. 



When just ready to hatch the embryos with their egg mem- 

 branes were removed from the jell, care being taken to remove all 

 traces of eggs which had died during development. The water 

 was carefully drained off and the jell was dried in a porcelain 

 dish over a water bath. The jell from a normal egg bunch of 

 the same stage of development was treated in a similar manner. 

 After drying on the water bath the jell was further desiccated 

 in a vacuum desiccator over sulfuric acid. 



233 grams of normal egg jell yielded 0.7855 grams or 0.337 

 per cent, of dry material. 



294 grams of the opaque jell yielded 1.060 grams or 0.361 

 per cent, of dry material. 



It thus appears that the jell which normally surrounds these 

 eggs contains about 99.6 per cent, of water and yet this jell is 

 fairly tough and resistant and admirably suited to supporting 

 the eggs in such a position as to permit ready diffusion of oxygen 

 and carbon dioxide and to protect the eggs from mechanical 

 injury. 



The two jells when desiccated were indistinguishable. A por- 

 tion of each was again placed in water and in a short time they 

 had imbibed enough water to resume their former appearance, 

 the one becoming milky white and the other transparent. It 

 may perhaps be germane to add that the milky appearance 

 could not be ascribed to bacteria inasmuch as the egg mass was 

 found shortly after being deposited and also because there was 

 no evidence of bacterial decomposition up to the time the drying 

 was begun. 



Thinking that perhaps the milky color was produced by an 

 admixture of albumen with the mucin (which composes the 

 normal egg jell) nitrogen determinations were made of both 

 abnormal and normal egg jells. 



The nitrogen was determined by Kjeldahl's method. 



Normal egg jell. 0.2060 gram gave 12.3 c.c. o.i normal 

 NH 4 OH; 0.3564 gram gave 21.1 c.c. o.i normal NH 4 OH, indicat- 

 ing 8.36 per cent, and 8.29 per cent, respectively or an average 

 of 8.32 per cent, of nitrogen in the normal egg jell. 



