• COMMERCIAL EGGS IN THE CENTRAL WEST. 33 
Mne of the 42 eggs — or 21 per cent — show very high counts, the 
maximum being 320,000,000 bacteria per gram in the white of Sam- 
ple 4049. The lowest count in these infected eggs is 150,000 per 
gram in the white and 94,000 in the yolk. Then there is a sudden 
drop to 1,800 per gram in Sample 3014-5, and the 18 remaining 
samples — or 43 per cent — which show bacteria present have so few 
that they may be neglected for practical purposes. Fourteen sam- 
ples — -or 33 per cent — were sterile in both yolk and white. The 
organisms in Sample 3012-1 were probably from the dirt spot on the 
shell against which the yolk had lain. Sample 301T-1 had a sour 
odor which indicates bacterial contamination in quantity ; 3017-2 had 
a dirty shell; 4030, 4049, and 4157 had objectionable odors on open- 
ing; 4141 had a stained shell. Samples 3017-2 and 4021 had no 
distinctive feature except the adherent yolk. 
MOLDY EGGS. 
Damp cellars, wet nests, stolen nests, etc., are responsible for the 
condition of eggs which show, on candling, dense black areas of vary- 
ing sizes inside the shell. ^A^ien the eggs are opened these areas are 
found to be infected with a mold, usually a common gTeen mold, of 
the Penicillium family (see PL -VI). Such eggs almost invariably 
have a moldy odor. If the mold spot is small it may not affect the 
integrity of the egg structure; on the other hand, it may grow to 
such dimensions that no distinction between yolk and white can be 
seen. 
The loroducts of the growth of the mold may gelatinize the white 
or liquefy it and may coagulate the yolk into a cheesy mass or render 
it watery. It is, however, but seldom that a mold in pure culture is 
found inside an egg] generally bacteria are also present, and some- 
times in large numbers. Both the white and the yolk of moldy eggs 
are apt to be discolored, usually becoming brownish. This color is 
not alwa^^s confined to the area of visible mold, but may be diffused 
throughout, as shown by cultures made from white and yolk remote 
from the visible infection. These and other characteristics are noted 
in Table 12, where the results of the examination of 45 individual 
eggs showing mold visible to the e,ye are recorded. 
17625°— 14 3 
