APPENDIX. Ill 



mistakably that their source was from the alimentary canal, and their permeation of 

 the tissues the direct result of the retention of the intestinal tract and its contents 

 in the sealed abdominal cavities of the poultry carcasses. Growers of poultry will sup- 

 port us in the assertion that the ducks and hens of the barnyard are the scavengers 

 of the farm. They are constantly picking over the soil, the farm garbage heaps, and 

 other bacterial hotbeds, and no accretion or mass of decaying matter ever becomes 

 too repulsive for poultry food, especially that of hens. In our bacteriological studies 

 all of the cultures were made from the eatable tissues of the various specimens and 

 with the most thorough aseptic precautions. The Bacillus coli communis was found 

 in 100 per cent, or every specimen tested; the Bacillus proteus vulgaris in <3 per cent; 

 the Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus in 20 per cent; and the Streptococcus pyogenes in 

 65 per cent of the 100 examinations. 



Probable infection before storage. — The cold storage plant owners of New York City 

 inform us that their poultry stocks are collected from all parts of the country, even 

 as far distant as the States of Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. After slaughter the 

 feathers are removed and the carcasses packed in barrels without further dressing. 

 The head, feet, and legs, as well as the craw of partially digested food, and the decom- 

 posing livers, lungs, and intestines with then- filthy contents, all combine to make 

 valuable weight, and are therefore left in the sealed cavities of the fowls, forming 

 conditions which force the general infection of the tissues by the flagellated, or rapidly 

 swimming intestinal bacteria, which double their quantity and numbers every 

 forty minutes, a single bacillus being capable of developing over forty-two billion 

 germs in twenty-four hours. Their shipments are made by rail and steamship, and 

 cover transit periods of several days before reaching the cold atmospheres of the 

 storage warehouses. 



To determine the activity of these germs and the period required for their permea- 

 tion of the tissues in the slaughtered undrawn fowl, we caused to be made a series of 

 experiments, the results of which justify the belief that a great percentage of the 

 infected poultry and game stock in storage became so infected before reaching the 

 low temperature of the storage warehouses. 



As a direct reply to the above-mentioned work of Doctor Cavana, Dr. 

 Henry A. Higley, at the solicitation of the New York Poultry Dealers' 

 Association, made an investigation and presented the same at a 

 hearing before the legislative committee at Albany, on behalf of 

 the opposition to a bill introduced by Doctor Cavana providing that all 

 poultry must be drawn within eighteen hours after killing. Among 

 Doctor Higley's conclusions are the following: 



1. No matter how many of the bacteria which are concerned in this discussion 

 there may be in the intestinal and thoracic cavities of dead undrawn poultry and 

 game, they can not invade the edible portions so long as the temperature of such 

 poultry and game is kept at 5° C. (41° F.) or below, because these bacteria do not 

 grow at such a temperature or below. 



2. Dead, undrawn poultry and game kept at a temperature (above 41° F.) which 

 would allow the invasion of its edible portions with these bacteria mentioned from 

 the intestinal tract would be subject to putrefaction changes because such a tempera- 

 ture would be much more favorable for the growth of the bacteria which produce 

 putrefaction, since they can grow at as low as 0° C. (32° F.). 



3. Even if the bacteria invasion claimed by the supporters of this measure does 

 take place, such bacteria can produce no poisonous substances because they are 

 placed under unfavorable conditions of growth so long as the 1 temperature of the fowls 

 is kept anywhere near 5° C. (41° F.). 



4. The longer dead poultry and game is kept frozen the less bacteria will it contain, 

 because freezing temperatures gradually destroy bacteria. 



