DESICCATED EGGS. * 213 



obelisk, and contended that the money would be well spent for such an ob- 

 ject. The cost of bringing over the obelisk has been estimated in years 

 gone by at £100,000, but Mr. Dixon said he was confident that the cost 

 wotild not exceed one-eighth or one-tenth of that sum. Eventually the 

 British Government had renounced the gift. Eecently, as was well known, 

 Dr. Erasmus Wilson, F. E,. S., had magnificently come forward and had of- 

 fered to find the money if Mr. Dixon would undertake the engineering de- 

 tails involved in the transport of the obelisk to England. That ofi"er had been 

 accepted. The Kedhive, on being spoken to on the subject by Mr. Fowler, 

 his Highness's chief engineer, and who was now in Egypt, said he should 

 be pleased to see the obelisk removed to England if the Government would 

 accept it on behalf of the nation. This the government has consented to 

 do, and it has again been presented to England through our Consul-Gencral 

 in Egypt. Nothing now remains, therefore, but to remove the obelisk to 

 England. — John Dixon, C. B., in Van NostrancVs Engineering Magazine. 



DESICCATED EGGS. 



It is alread}^ well understood that if albumen or white of egg be slowly 

 dried in mass, or be dried rapidly at too high a temperature, a product or 

 material will be the result which is of inferior and not uniform character 

 or quality. Also, that if the yelk of eggs be dried in mass, slowly or rajD- 

 idly, the result will be a material or product inferior in quality, not uniform 

 in structure, difficult of solution, and of little value for the ordinary uses of 

 the yelk of eggs. If batter of eggs composed of the whites and yelks to- 

 gether be dried in mass, the result lacks uniformity and solubility; and if 

 either of these products, so obtained, be subsequently ground or pulverized, 

 by any known process, the mealy result so obtained is of inferior quality, is 

 slow of solution in water, and does not possess several of the im^^ortant 

 properties of the fresh shell eggs. 



To meet this difficulty, the idea of the desiccation of eggs in rotation or 

 agitation under the blasts of air, either heated or otherwise, has been va- 

 riously applied during a long time past, both in this countxy and in Europe, 

 but the difficulty mainly encountered has been that of producing a material 

 capable of being preserved in different climates, of being readily and com- 

 pletely dissolved, and of being applied to the principal uses and purposes 

 for which the egg may be applied before desiccation. 



The natural egg contains, in varying proportions, a certain oil, hereinaf- 

 ter spoken of as the oil of the egg. This oil is a very important constituent 

 of the egg. It is innocuous while in its natural condition — that is, in nn- 

 distiii'bed combination with, or relation to, the other parts of the organism 

 of the egg, its proportion thereto being relatively small. 



When, however, this oil is set free by any process, it rapidly becomes 

 rancid, highly offensive, and, in fact, acrid, and is a most potent and active 



