FOODS — HUMAN NUTRITION. 663 



List of insecticide dealers, 0- W. Woodwobth (California Sta. Circ. 79, 

 pp. 23). — This circular lists the firms which have been licensed to sell insecti- 

 cides and fungicides in California for the year ending June 30, 1913. 



FOODS— HUMAN NTITRITION. 



Practical sugg'estions for the preparation of frozen and dried egg's, Mary 

 E. Pennington [U. S. Dcpt. Agr., Bur. Clicm. Circ. 98, pp. 12, pis. 3, fig. 1). — 

 A study of the fundamental facts underlying the problem of the preservation of 

 eggs and egg products. 



Examinations of eggs which had been commercially candled for breaking 

 were made at different times at 6 different factories. The appearance, odor, 

 and sometimes the taste of the egg when removed from the shell were added 

 to the Candler's description. Laboratory examinations were made to deter- 

 mine the number of bacteria present, and whether or not the organisms were 

 of the colon type. The amount of nitrogen obtained from the eggs was analyzed 

 according to the Folin aeration method. 



With the exception of the eggs having green-colored whites, musty eggs, 

 sour eggs, and eggs with a pronounced odor which the candler can not always 

 distinguish, the eggs going to the breakers after careful handling were found 

 to be, bacteriologically speaking, a clean, wholesome food. The eggs, however, 

 were handled under very different conditions and the product varied greatly 

 in bacterial content, although the percentage of loosely combined nitrogen 

 did not vary to any gi'eat extent. 



The bacterial content of egg products was proved to be largely a matter of 

 handling, because there was a wide variation between the output of the different 

 plants, and when eggs used by all of them were opened in a laboratory under 

 aseptic conditions they were found to contain but few bacteria. Conversely, 

 when they were opened in the laboratory according to methods prevailing in 

 egg-breaking establishments, the product sometimes approximated closely that 

 obtained in a commercial establishment. The fingers of the breaker were found 

 to be one prolific source of trouble, as they are constantly wet. The dishes 

 used were found to be another source of contamination, and in order to over- 

 come this an improved egg-breaking outfit is illustrated and described. Sugges- 

 tions are also offered for the construction of a suitable room for egg breaking, 

 so that bacterial cleanliness may be preserved. 



"Arrangements should be made for washing and sterilizing utensils outside 

 of the breaking room. All eggs should be chilled at a temperature below 40° F. 

 for 24 hours, as soon as received, candled in a chilled candling room (not above 

 65°), and transferred as soon as candled to the breakers. The liquid egg should 

 go at once, preferably while the temperature is below 4.5°, in its ultimate con- 

 tainers, to a quick freezer. This necessitates a low-temperature room on the 

 premises. ... It is believed that, properly conducted, the freezing and 

 drying of eggs is an industry which is economically desirable, as long as the 

 centers of egg production and egg consumption are so widely separated, and as 

 long as the poor handling methods bring to the concentrators of the producing 

 sections such enormous numbers of eggs that are wholesome but not available 

 for long hauls." 



Oats in human nutrition, Pluchet and Niviot {Bui. Soc. Nat. Agr. France, 

 12 (1912), No. 7, pp. 586-59i ) .—Attention is called to the advantages which, 

 in the authors' opinion, oats possess as food for man, and to experiments by 

 Moreau of the French Army which appear to indicate that the addition of 

 oats in some form or other to the ration increases the endurance of soldiers 



