CHAPTER LII 



HEALTHY EGGS 



Does the egg contain microbes? It may or it may 

 not. That is to say, there are eggs that appear to 

 be absolutely sterile, and again, there are eggs in 

 the contents of which microbes — bacteria or molds — 

 can be demonstrated. Poppe, in 19 lo, working in 

 the Royal Health Department in Berlin, came to 

 the conclusion that fresh laid eggs derived from 

 hens that have not copulated are mostly germ free 

 in their contents, whereas eggs laid by mated hens, 

 and as a rule fertilized, may contain bacteria. 

 Poppe speaks of this conclusion derived from his 

 own personal investigations as being a complete cor- 

 roboration of a view already in good standing. That 

 is to say, such reputable workers as Burden-Sander- 

 son (1878), Schrank (1888), and Menini as late 

 as 1908, had noted absolute freedom from bacteria 

 in recently laid hen's eggs. The scientists' accept- 

 ance of this view is seen in the fact that certain 

 workers proceeded to show why eggs were free 

 from microbes and we find Wurtz (1890), Turro 

 (1902), and Horowitz (1902), claiming, as a re- 

 sult of their researches, that the reason for this 

 freedom from bacteria is due to the presence in 

 both white and yolk of certain substances having 



214 



