MAKKET COLD-STORAGE CHICKENS. 95 



in the relative distribution of the protein nitrogen. The fowls in stor- 

 age 14 months give indications of more marked changes, chemically, 

 than did the others examined, considering the length of the storage 

 period, but such changes may be due to the number of organisms 

 which were found in a living condition in the tissues and which 

 may have been present when the fowl was stored. Because these 

 chickens have an unknown history preceding their entrance into the 

 cold-storage warehouse it is impossible to say whether the numbers 

 found represented an increase or a decrease during the storage period. 

 Such questions can only be answered by the study of chickens of 

 known and of a strictly comparable history. 



Neither can this report deal comprehensively with the question of 

 the migration of organisms from the intestine into the edible portions. 

 Judging from the ravages undergone by the walls of the gut during 

 storage it could offer but a slight barrier to active bacteria. From 

 an investigation which is now in progress to determine the resist- 

 ance of intestinal organisms to cold when in their natural environ- 

 ment it appears that they do remain alive in large numbers. They 

 are, however, of the varieties which develop best at 20 C. instead of 

 body heat, agreeing in this with the behavior of the naturally occur- 

 ring milk organisms when kept under like circumstances. a The 

 fact that the organisms which have been found are not gas pro- 

 ducers in dextrose media would argue against possible migration. 

 The location of the bacteria in the tissues, on the other hand, would 

 indicate its possibility since there are fewer in the muscles of the 

 breast than in the inner thigh muscles, which in the chicken lie closely 

 adherent to the body wall. 



CHANGES IN FAT. 



The decomposition of the fat of the chicken is much more pro- 

 nounced than is the decomposition of the protein, and in the tracing 

 of the changes which occur in this tissue not only bacteria and enzymes, 

 must be taken into account, but light and air must also have due 

 consideration. 



It has been held that the splitting of fat into acid and glycerol is 

 the cause of rancidity. More recent studies would indicate that, 

 while such a splitting ordinarily accompanies the condition known as 

 " rancid," it is not the real cause of it, but that rancidity is due to 

 the action of air and light on fats which have been previously split 

 by enzymes acting in the presence of moisture. 6 The part played 

 by bacteria in the decomposition of fats in their natural environment 

 is not a minor one, though the role to be assigned to them regarding 



^Pennington, loc. cit. 



& Lewkowitsch, Chemical Technology and Analysis of Oils, Fats, and Waxes, 3d ed.,. 

 1904, p. 22. 



