72 PRELIMINARY COLD STORAGE STUDIES. 



the legs without any other support and has still retained the position 

 occupied when packed in the case. Plate V shows another chicken 

 which had been massaged and manipulated until it was as flexible as 

 such treatment would make it. The lack of success, however, is well 

 illustrated by the position of the neck. These photographs show 

 well the drying of the tissues, as indicated by concavities on legs and 

 back, where the fresh chicken is normally well rounded. The texture 

 of the skin is leathery in the extreme and yet brittle. All the changes 

 noticed in the 2-year chickens are greatly exaggerated in those kept 

 for 4 years, especially the color, which is of a greenish hue throughout, 

 and when removed the under surface of the skin showed a color similar 

 to the outside. The muscles of the breast were dried to a parchment- 

 like covering, easily mistaken for the skin, and in some places the dry- 

 ing reached to the bone. Where this was not the case the color of 

 the muscle had changed to a rust red. While the inner thigh muscles 

 did not show such marked evidences of desiccation, they were more 

 discolored. Deep browns and purplish reds predominated, while the 

 shrunken bands of fat between the muscles were a deep brown-orange. 

 The body wall overlying the intestines was distinctly green; the 

 viscera were in bad condition, the liver mushy, and the kidneys a 

 thin paste. The intestinal walls were mere remnants of membranes, 

 from which nearly all the cellular elements had disappeared. 



A proteolytic change in the muscles of market cold-stored fowls is 

 evidenced by the changes occurring in the relative proportions of the 

 various proteid constituents. This is sometimes shown as an increase 

 in the amount of nitrogen soluble in water, which may be accompa- 

 nied by a rise in the nitrogen coagulated by heat; or there may be a 

 change in the relative amounts of albumose, peptone, and amido 

 acids. These changes, indicated by the chemical data, are substan- 

 tiated by the histological and bacteriological findings. It must be 

 remembered in this connection that the market cold-stored chickens 

 are to be considered as individuals and compared with the fresh fowls 

 rather than with one another. For example, the chickens in storage 

 for two years, having been thawed by soaking in water and refrozen 

 under market conditions, are not comparable with those frozen con- 

 tinuously and thawed once in cold air. Similarly it is probable that 

 the bacteriological condition of Nos. 84 and 85, examined after four- 

 teen months' storage, was worse when put into storage than was that 

 of Nos. 82 and 83, and hence conclusions in regard to progressive 

 changes can not be drawn from such data. 



The analysis of the fat of the two birds numbered 83 gives the 

 highest acid value yet reached, corresponding to 27.04 per cent of 

 free oleic acid. The lodin number is the lowest, but the Hehner 

 number, though below the normal, is not exaggeratedly so. 



