July 3. 1916 Effect of Autolysis upon Muscle Creatin 



543 



agar plates made therefrom. In withdrawing the portions for cultures 

 the point of the pipette was introduced well below the surface of the 

 liquid so as to avoid drawing up any of the toluol which floated on 

 the surface. The chloroform, being heavy, settled to the bottom. 



In order to avoid carrying over any of the toluol on the pipettes, 

 the ends of the pipettes were washed with sterile, distilled water before 

 their contents were delivered into the agar tubes. A single colony was 

 observed in one of the plates made on the fourth day and single colonies 

 were observed in each of the plates made on the eighth day, but after 

 this the plates remained sterile. 



The absence of bacterial development in the plates may have been 

 due to inhibition of growth by small amounts of the antiseptics dis- 

 solved in the meat infusion rather than to actual destruction of the 

 organisms present. However, the results seem to afford ample evidence 

 that there was no bacterial multiplication in the samples during the course 

 of the experiment. 



CHEMICAL STUDIES 



Moisture was determined in the fresh material for the purpose of cor- 

 recting for the volume of water in the meat. 



Creatin and creatinin were determined in the filtered extracts from 

 the various samples according to the methods of Folin, as previously 

 noted (2). 



Table II shows the changes in the creatin and creatinin content of 

 muscular tissue from the ox incubated at 37 C. in the presence of 

 antiseptics for periods ranging from 2 to 84 days. 



Table II. — Changes in creatin and creatinin content of beef muscle during antiseptic 



autolysis at 57 ° C. 



[Expressed as percentages of fresh material.] 



Serial No. 



Incubation 

 period. 



Percentage of 

 total creatinin. 



Percentage 



of free 

 creatinin. 



Percentage 



of creatin 



calculated as 



creatinin. 



Percentage 

 of total creati- 

 nin as free 

 creatinin. 



4- 



5- 



6. 



7- 



8. 



9- 

 10. 

 11. 

 12. 



13- 



14. 



IS- 

 17- 



48 hours . 

 95 hours. 

 7 days . . 

 14 days. 

 21 days. 

 28 days. 

 35 days. 

 42- days. 



49 days . 

 56 days. 

 63 days . 

 70 days. , 

 77 days. . 

 84 days . . 



0.28 

 29 



o. 0047 

 . 0140 

 .0195 



-°33 

 .049 

 . 060 

 . 067 

 .080 

 . 107 

 .098 

 . 101 

 . 109 

 . 112 

 •"3 

 •"3 



°- 2 753 

 . 2760 

 . 2605 



• 2 57 

 . 241 

 . 220 

 .203 

 . 200 



• i73 

 . 182 

 .179 

 .181 

 .178 

 . 167 

 .177 



1. 67 



4-78 



7.07 



11. 26 



16.65 



21. 09 



25.O9 

 28. 12 



37-6i 



35-53 

 36.61 



37- 19 

 38. 21 



39-7° 

 38.53 



