SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXTV. No. 



further word of similar effect may be stated 

 concerning the benzoate and the salicylate. 

 It seemed reasonable to expect that these sub- 

 stances would enter the egg, not only because 

 there is a pronounced tendency of ring- and 

 other compounds to appear in the egg, as my 

 own previous, though unpublished, studies 

 have taught me, but because it was known that 

 these substances are normally not broken 

 down, i . e., not completely oxidized in the 

 body, and even appear in other secretions than 

 the urine; benzoic acid, for example, having 

 been recovered from the saliva of dogs; and 

 the salicylate likewise from milk, perspiration, 

 bile and from synovial sacs. 



If these substances should appear in the 

 egg it seemed reasonable to expect them to 

 exercise a preserving action there, since it is 

 known that they retard both peptic and tryp- 

 tic digestion; putrefaction of protein solu- 

 tions being retarded or entirely prevented by 

 the presence, even in small quantities, of 

 these compounds. 



The experiments were carried out in the 

 following manner: Normally fed, laying hens 

 were arranged in lots of five each. To one lot 

 urotropin was fed; to another sodium ben- 

 zoate, and to another sodium salicylate. The 

 feedings were continued over a period of eight 

 to ten days. All of the eggs laid during the 

 week preceding the beginning of the dosing 

 period, and all laid during the second week 

 after the close of that period, were kept as 

 control (those laid during the first week after 

 the dosing stopped were discarded as being 

 contaminated with the drug). 



The dosage in each case was 0.4 G. admin- 

 istered in gelatin capsules twice per day; i. e., 

 the total dosage during each twenty-four hours 

 was four-fifths of a gram. Two birds were 

 not in good condition on the fifth day of the 

 dosing and were withdrawn from the experi- 

 ment. 



Both control and dosed eggs were kept at 

 moderate temperatures, i. e., 12°-18° C, until 

 the last of the control eggs were laid. Then 

 all were placed at a temperature which fluctu- 

 ated from 20°-32° C; being left thus exposed 



for months in order to compare the " keeping " 

 qualities of the various eggs. 



It is probably best to follow more specific- 

 ally the eggs from the birds which were fed 

 urotropin, since in these the experiment was 

 the most successful. The eggs of the series 

 were laid between June 30 and July 30. They 

 belong, therefore, to the class of difficult-to- 

 keep, summer eggs which cold-storage men 

 designate as " dirties." Already on August 20 

 and on September 17 a comparison by taste 

 and smell of control and dosed eggs left no 

 doubt whatever that the dosed eggs were the 

 more palatable. These tests repeated on Oc- 

 tober 12 and November 10 confirmed the 

 earlier result. On the latter dates the control 

 eggs almost without exception were quite un- 

 palatable. The dosed eggs could be eaten even 

 on the last named date. It can not be said, 

 however, that these control eggs would ever 

 be mistal^en for really fresh eggs ; nor that the 

 consistency of the white or albumen was 

 quite unchanged, for after a time the albu- 

 men of some of these eggs becomes rather 

 more dense and elastic than is natural. 



When tested for formaldehyde, by the Rim- 

 ini and other tests, the eggs of this series 

 yielded abundant quantities. Indeed it was 

 found that such eggs were spontaneously giv- 

 ing off formaldehyde in quantities sufficient 

 to be absorbed by, and detected in, some con- 

 trol eggs left in the same box. To my friend 

 Professor Hugh McGuigan, of the North- 

 western University Medical School, who is 

 extensively studying the action and disposi- 

 tion of hexamethylentetramine in mammals, I 

 am indebted for verifying these tests as well as 

 for friendly and helpful conversations and 

 suggestions. 



It was made certain that the urotropin is 

 excreted into both the white and the yolk of 

 the egg. This was determined in the follow- 

 ing manner : Eggs which were laid within 

 twenty-four hours of a first feeding with 

 urotropin were found to yield formaldehyde. 

 Here the formaldehyde could not have en- 

 tered the yolk while in the ovary, since such 

 yolk must have left the ovary several hours 

 before the feeding. It must, therefore, have 



