BACTERIA IN MEAT 393 



The kind of organism and the number of times found by Rettgcr 

 arc listed below : 



Fresh eggs. Number of times 



found. 



Slaphylococcus, usually aureus and albus 74 



Subtilis group, usually B. mesentericus and B. ramusus . . 60 



B. coli and closely related organisms 43' 



Proteus group 30 



Streptococcus 14 



Micrococcus (tetragenus, etc.) 9 



Streptothrix 6 



Diphtheroid bacillus 5 



Putrefactive anaerobes 5 



B. fluorescens 2 



Mold 4 



B. mucosus 3 



Mixed .... 2 



Total 257 



Hadley and Caldwell studied forty different strains isolated from 

 eggs. They were divided as follows: rods, 28; cocci, 11 ; spirillum, 1. 

 The}' found no member of the hemorrhagic septicemia, intestinal, 

 proteus colon, enteritidis, typhoid, dysentery, nor diphtheria group. 



Rettger considers that under normal conditions the shell is bac- 

 terium-proof. Moisture lessens its impervious character, however, 

 and when combined with dirt or filth makes it possible for micro- 

 organisms to enter and bring about decomposition. Hence, eggs 

 should be stored under sanitary conditions. 



Cold storage, frozen, and dried eggs often contain millions of 

 bacteria, yet of all food, so far as known, eggs are less liable to con- 

 tain harmful products or to convey disease than any other single 

 food of animal origin. They have an exceptionally clean health 

 record . There is no known infection of the hen transmissible through 

 the eggs to man. The literature is exceptionally free from instances 

 where sickness has been attributed to eggs except in the case of 

 anaphylaxis which is undoubtedly due to an idiosyncrasy of the 

 individual and not to any inherent injurious constituent of the egg. 



Bacteria in Meat. It is usually considered that the tissues of 

 healthy animals are free from bacteria, but Haagland states that 

 certain bacteria (chiefly micrococci) may be normally present in the 

 carcass of healthy animals slaughtered for beef. These bacteria he 

 considers possess no pathological significance and do not appear to 

 multiply in the cold-stored carcasses, provided the cold storage 

 room is maintained at the proper temperature. 



Meat kept for some time may contain many bacteria. Weinzirl 

 and Newton found that four out of ten samples of meat which had 

 been stored at 10 C. for one year, contained over 10,000,000. 



Chopped meats invariably contain many bacteria for the reason 

 that meat used for that purpose is often that which has been dis- 



