54 
containing the starch water had been half filled. It was 
found that the eggs settled to the bottom of the pail and 
became thickly coated with the starch, which prevented 
their adhering to one another. The eggs could thus lie 
- quietly, and the evil effects of the agitation were avoided. 
At the same time, by being placed in the starch water they 
were brought suddenly into a large quantity of fresh 
water, and the milt was thus washed off almost immediate- 
ly, so that the water on the eggs was not alkaline. The 
starch in the pails settles slowly, so that after ten minutes 
there is much starch in the water at the bottom of the pail 
and but little in that at the top. The top water may then 
be poured off and fresh water added, and the egg and 
starch brought into contact with the fresh water by a few 
twisting and swinging movements of the pail. As the 
starch again settles, the water may be again changed, so 
that without using fresh starch there is a changing of the 
water every ten minutes, if deemed necessary. The eges 
may lie in the starch water for four hours or longer, but 
at the end of two hours they were usually washed up to 
free them from starch. They were found well filled and 
developing normally ; they had not adhered to one another 
and did not adhere when transferred to fresh water The 
starch appears to have no other effect on the eggs than to 
keep them apart. 
Counts of eggs treated in this way showed between 15 
and 30 per cent. more of fertilized eggs than were obtained 
by the usual method. 
Here are two examples taken from a considerable num- 
ber of experiments. In each case a batch of eggs was fer- 
tilized and then divided into two lots; one lot was then 
treated in the usual way, while the other was treated by 
the starch method : 
