STUDIES OF POULTRY. 9 



iodin, saponification and Hehner number, the acid value, ester value, 

 and index of refraction. A general analysis of the flesh, including 

 water, ash, intimate fat, etc., was, of course, made for all types of 

 chickens studied. 



The results of the study of the distribution of various forms of 

 protein nitrogen, especially as illustrated by the study of chickens 

 of known history, dry picked, cold-air chilled, and put into a " sharp " 

 freezer twenty-four hours after killing, would indicate that proteo- 

 lytic changes do take place, though they do not follow the usual 

 course as observed in changes occurring in flesh at temperatures 

 above freezing. For example, the protein soluble in water commonly 

 decreases after long storage; the nitrogen in the form of protein 

 soluble in water and coagulable by heat also decreases; the albu- 

 mose may remain constant in quantity, even after many months of 

 storage; while the peptone decreases and the amino bodies increase. 

 This is especially noticeable in the white meat; the changes in the 

 dark meat, while essentially the same, are seldom so pronounced and 

 commonly approach nearer to the usual course of flesh proteolysis. 

 The chemical analyses were made on seven lots of fresh chickens; 

 seven lots of market storage chickens, aged 14, 17, and 24 months, 

 respectively ; and twelve lots of chickens of known history in storage 

 at 12-15 F. (10 C.) for four months. 



In 1908 Boos a reported the analysis of drawn and undrawn fowl 

 cold-stored for more than nine months. These birds were examined 

 according to the methods of Brieger and of Bowmann and von 

 Udranszky for ptomains. None were found. Skatol, indol, phenol, 

 and cresol were looked for with negative results. Drawn and un- 

 drawn cold-stored fowls, commercially prepared, were thawed at 68 

 F. and kept at that temperature for six days. The undrawn birds 

 kept better than the drawn. 



In July, 1909, a paper appeared by Emmett and Grindley, 6 entitled 

 "A Preliminary Study of the Effect of Cold Storage upon Beef and 

 Poultry." In this communication the authors present the results 

 of the analyses of one lot of fresh chickens and four lots of storage 

 chickens. Two of the latter one drawn before storage, the other 

 undrawn were kept in the freezer for four months; another lot, 

 undrawn, was kept twenty-one months; while the storage period of 

 the remaining lot of poultry, which was drawn, was unknown. No 

 details of preparation are given, except that the poultry was put 

 into a storage warehouse the same day that it was killed. Since Chi- 



Chemical Examination of Drawn and Undrawn Poultry Kept in Cold 

 Storage, Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Board of 

 Health, 1907. 



& J. Ind. Eng. Chem., 1909,' 1 : 413. 

 83065 Cir. 6411 2 



