6 STUDIES OF POULTRY. 



scientific point of view, since it is to these facts that the industry 

 must look for the stable betterment of its output; (2) the application 

 of refrigeration as at present practiced by the industry in the han- 

 dling of poultry and eggs; and (3) a discussion of the application of 

 the scientific findings to the practical keeping of poultry and eggs in 

 a fit condition for food. 



REVIEW OF THE SCIENTIFIC WORK DONE IN THE UNITED 



STATES. 



CHEMICAL AND HISTOLOGICAL DATA ON FROZEN POULTRY. 



Since this paper deals with the subject solely from the viewpoint of 

 the United States, the review of the scientific work done on poultry 

 and eggs will also be limited to the investigations made by its work- 

 ers. While there is, in American literature, a long list of papers 

 recording observations on the effect of low temperatures on poultry 

 and eggs, but few of them include the chemical, bacteriological, and 

 histological findings upon which such statements must be based if 

 they are to be accepted as scientific work in the strict sense of the 

 term. That such is the case can scarcely be wondered at when one 

 considers the long periods of experimentation involved in tracing 

 changes in flesh held at temperatures below zero, the equipment nec- 

 essary for the maintenance of such temperatures, and the compara- 

 tively recent interest in the scientific side of the subject. 



The first presentation of American work was almost simultaneous 

 for several of the communications. In January, 1908, at a meeting 

 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Wiley 

 and his associates made a statement outlining the w T ork then in prog- 

 ress on chickens, quail, and eggs, and gave a brief report, with 

 lantern illustrations, of the histological changes occurring in the 

 muscle fibers of chickens kept below freezing for varying periods of 

 time. 



The Journal of the American Chemical Society received in June, 

 1908, and published in its October issue, a paper by W. D. Richard- 

 son and Erwin Scherubel, entitled " The deterioration and commercial 

 preservation of flesh foods," 6 and treating of experiments on frozen 

 beef. In the last paragraph of the paper, after summing up the 

 analytical evidence to show that there is no chemical change in beef 

 kept in a frozen condition for more than five hundred days, this sen- 

 tence occurs : " We may say that similar tests of frozen poultry have 

 resulted similarly." It is greatly to be regretted that the details of 



Science, 1908, 27: 295. 



b Richardson and Scherubel, J. Arner. Chem. Soc., 1908, 30: 1515-1564. 



[Cir. 64] 



