COMMERCIAL EGGS IN THE CENTRAL WEST. 27 



Like the eggs with dirty shells, there is a wide variation in. the 

 number of bacteria, though only 5. out of the 56 individual eggs listed 

 are sterile in a dilution of 1 to 10, and when the count is beyond a 

 few hundred organisms per gram it is generally very high — that is, 

 in the hundreds of thousands or millions. Four eggs have a bacte- 

 rial content which is much higher than that observed in the other 

 52 eggs, ranging from 2,700 to 370,000,000 per gram. In three cases 

 out of the four an objectionable odor was noticed when the egg was 

 opened, and three of these eggs had dirty as well as cracked shells. 

 B. coU, though sought in all but five of the samples, were found in 

 but three instances and then in eggs which showed a high count. 

 Here, again, the whites of the heavily infected eggs show a much 

 higher count than the corresponding yolks. This is quite in line with 

 the origin of the infection. 



The samples from small lots of eggs with cracked shells bear out 

 the findings from the individual eggs. Where the eggs with cracked 

 shells are of good quality, both chemical and bacterial analyses indi- 

 cate that fact. Where deterioration has begun, the cracking of the 

 shell does not materially alter its course, but it hastens decay. Of 

 course, the protection which the shell affords is lessened by cracking, 

 and bacterial invasion is only a question of time and environment. 



EGGS HAVING THE YOLK SEEPING INTO THE WHITE. * 



During warm weather, when the deterioration of eggs proceeds 

 with great rapidity and in the most diversified fashion, many eggs 

 are received at the concentrating centers, especially those reached 

 by railroad or where the wagon haul is over rough roads, which show 

 on candling filaments of yolk that have apparently found their way 

 through apertures in the vitelline membrane for longer or shorter 

 distances into the white. 



Sometimes these filaments are very few and distinct, half an inch 

 or more in length; in that case the egg white is usually normal in 

 color, even between the filaments. Sometimes the seepage of the 

 yolk into the white might be better described as diffuse, in which case 

 very numerous and tiny filaments make a yellow zone around the yolk 

 membrane, the outer portions of white remaining clear and the usual 

 color. As the process of mixing progresses the white becomes more 

 and more yellow and the vitelline membrane less and less resistant, 

 until finally the latter ruptures and a complete mixing of yolk and 

 white follows. 



Even the most careful cracking of the shell at its equator is at 

 times sufficient to rupture the yolk membrane extensively, thus per- 

 mitting the yolk to escape entirely. At other times a fairly clean 

 separation of white and yolk can be made. Generally such eggs ex- 

 hibit, in addition to the filamentous yolk, distinct signs of age, such 

 as shrinkage, and of rough handling, as shown by the movable air 

 cell. Ordinarily the odor is good or somewhat stale, the sort of odor 



