TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 143 
On the Tongue of the Great Anteater. By Professor Macauister, M.D. 
On some Anomalous Forms of the Human Periorbital Bones. 
By Professor Macatisrer, WD. 
On the Influence of Food, and the Methods of supplying it to Plants and 
Animals. By Professor Reprern, M.D. 
On the Effects of Ozone on the Animal Economy. 
By Protessor Reprery, M.D. 
On the Decomposition of Eggs*. By Wii11am Tuomson, F.C.S. 
Researches on this subject were commenced by the late Dr. F. Crace-Calvert and 
myself about the beginning of October 1870, and continued during’ the following 
18 months. 
We made many series of experiments, among which I may mention first some 
good whole eggs were set aside on a shelf and examined from time to time to 
observe the action of ordinary atmospheric air. The shells of some set aside in 
the same way were pierced by a fine needle. Some were exposed in this way to 
dry and others to moist atmospheres, some to constant and others to constantly 
varying temperatures. The effects were observed of placing some close to putrid 
meat, and others, for the sake of comparison, in good air; the air in both cases was 
kept heated to between 80° and 90° F. for many weeks. Experiments were made 
by exposing them in different gases, moist and dry; some with their shells whole, 
and some pierced. by a fine needle; and, lastly, the effects of placing on the shell 
the dried germs of different agents of decomposition, and also of placing the eggs in 
water and other solutions containing different animalcule &c. in active life, were 
observed. 
Besides these experiments, however, we examined rotten eggs obtained from dif- 
ferent vendors at different times of the year, and the results from all may be summed 
up generally as follows :— 
That eggs with their shells pence are attacked and decomposed by one, two, or 
all of three different agents of decomposition. The first we termed “ The Putrid 
Cell,” the second “ The Vibrio” and the third “The Fungus Decompositions.” 
“ The Putrid Cell” we have found to spring entirely from the yolk; and it 
seems to be the morbid growth of the bioplasm, which, had the egg been hatched, 
would have gone to form the blood, bone, and tissues of the chicken. 
These cells gradually enlarge to several hundred times their original size, and at 
the same time other cells develop in their interior, Ultimately the parent cell 
bursts, and those in the interior take independent existence, and undergo the same 
process of development. These cells convert oxygen into carbonic dioxide; and 
in one case, where an egg, which we ultimately found to have been decomposed 
solely by this agent, was enclosed in an atmosphere of oxygen contained in a 
bottle of 18-ounces capacity for 118 days, only 0:2 per cent. of oxygen remained, 
95:06 per cent. of carbonic dioxide and 4°74 per cent. of nitrogen, together with a 
much smaller amount of other gases, were present. But oxygen is not necessary to 
the growth of this peculiar ferment. In two eggs laid on the same day, which were 
carefully and thoroughly varnished with shellac, and set aside on the same shelf, 
exposed to the air for 1 year and 9 days, and then broken and examined, one was 
found to be quite good, and free from smell or any germ of decomposition ; whilst 
the other, on being struck with the point of a knife, burst open, and scattered part 
of its contents in all directions. It was completely decomposed, and emitted a very 
bad smell. The yolk was completely mixed up with the white; and on micro- 
* Vide ‘Chemical News,’ vol. xxx. p. 159. 
