THE EGG 167 



Ordinarily the internal organs, as the ovaries, 

 kidneys, spleen, etc., are sterile unless diseased, 

 as just stated. However, Conradi maintains that 

 he has found bacteria in these supposedly sterile 

 organs in seventy-two cases out of one-hundred- 

 sixty- two. 



The germs that have been alluded to under in- 

 testinal flora of chickens can easily find their way 

 into the cloaca and up the oviduct, as illustrated 

 in Plate I. The yolk or ovum when fully de- 

 veloped in the ovary is delivered, in a similar 

 manner, as in higher animal life, into the first 

 portion of the oviduct (uterus), which at its free 

 extremity is rather funnel shaped and is called 

 the ostium infundibulmn. This egg canal which 

 can be likened to the uterus of higher animals is 

 about eighteen to twenty inches long and is 

 lined with tubular glands which secrete the al- 

 bumen, and in the posterior portion the shell. 

 This material is formed from foods carried by 

 the blood, which is very abundant in these* walls. 

 As the egg traverses the cloaca in being passed 

 out" (layed) it is exposed to contamination by 

 microorganisms which may be taken up into the 

 oviduct with the male element (spermatozoa) 

 after copulation. Bacteria are not so common 

 in non-fertilized eggs as they are in fertilized 

 eggs, a fact that supports this theory. 



Many of the organisms (germs) found in eggs 

 are nonmotile, so that they must find their way up 

 this canal by extension by growth or be carried 

 mechanically. Among the bacteria that have 

 been found in eggs are: Micrococcus nonlique- 

 faciens, Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus and 

 alhus, Bacillus prodigiosus, Bacillus violaceus, 

 Bacillus putridis, Bacillus mesentericus, Bacillus 



