542 Journal of Agricultural Research vol. vi. No. i 4 



but the facts seem to indicate that in considerable part, at least, the 

 change of creatin into creatinin during the autolysis of beef muscle was 

 caused by enzym action. 



ANTISEPTIC AUTOLYSIS EXPERIMENTS 



Muscular tissue, consisting of the pillar of the diaphragm, was ob- 

 tained from the carcass of a steer immediately after slaughter. The 

 meat was freed from visible fat and connective tissue and finely ground. 

 Thirty-five gm. of meat were weighed into a mortar with 20 gm. of sand, 

 and 50 c. c. of a 0.9 per cent solution of sodium chlorid were added. The 

 tissue was ground to a mass of uniform consistency and then transferred 

 to a 250 c. c. Erlenmyer flask with the aid of 100 c. c. of the salt solution, 

 and the flask was stoppered with a rubber stopper. Sixteen samples 

 were prepared in this manner. After all the samples had been prepared, 

 2 c. c. each of chloroform and toluol were added to each flask which 

 was then thoroughly shaken. Fourteen of the flasks were then placed 

 in an incubator where they were held at 37 C. for various periods of 

 time. The flasks were shaken daily to insure saturation of the solutions 

 with the antiseptics. Two flasks were placed in a cold-storage room at 

 a temperature of 34 F. and shaken at intervals for a period of 24 hours 

 for the purpose of determining the creatin and creatinin in the fresh 

 material. 



BACTERIOLOGICAL CONTROL OP SAMPLES 



Before adding the antiseptics and before incubation, bacterial counts 

 were made of three of the samples, Nos. 2, S, and 17, which had been 

 prepared as described above. In making the counts, 0.5 c. c. and 1 

 c. c. portions of the samples were withdrawn with sterile pipettes and 

 added to tubes of melted agar which were immediately poured into 

 Petri dishes and incubated. The bacterial counts on the three samples 

 were as follows : 



Sample 2 2,116 bacteria per cubic centimeter. 



Sample 8 1,480 bacteria per cubic centimeter. 



Sample 17 1,584 bacteria per cubic centimeter. 



The samples were prepared one at a time in the order in which they 

 were numbered — that is, from 1 to 18 — and the higher bacterial count 

 in the case of sample 2 is probably due to the fact that this flask was 

 the first one prepared and remained standing for several hours at room 

 temperature, thus giving time for bacterial multiplication before the 

 counts were made. The three counts were made in order to give some 

 idea of the average number of bacteria in the samples before adding the 

 antiseptics and before incubation. 



The samples were removed from the incubator for chemical analysis 

 at the intervals given in Table II. In testing the samples bacteriologic- 

 ally, two portions of 1 c. c. each were removed with sterile pipettes and 



