COMMEKCIAL EGGS IX THE CEXTEAL WEST. 29 
Two of the eggs show decidedly high counts. The first. Sample 
3006-4, was a winter egg and liad probably been held by the farmer 
or merchant for a long time. The second high count, Sample 4108, 
was a July egg, and it5 bacterial condition might be explained by 
the fact that the shell showed signs of much handling, and the egg 
had acquired a stale odor. The other samples of the series show low 
counts; there was an absence of B. coJi throughout, even in the case 
of the two high-count eggs. 
Six small lots of eggs, where deterioration had gone further than 
in the type just described, were also examined for bacteria and loosely 
bound nitrogen. The number of organisms was negligible; the 
amoimt of loosely combined nitrogen was higher than had been ^ve- 
viously noted. All of these eggs would have been discarded by a 
careful grader because of the yellow color of the white. Just where 
to draw the line, however, is not a simj^le matter. Practical expe- 
rience would indicate that when the white of the egg was normal m 
color and when the filaments of yolk were entirely distinct from the 
Avhite, or when, if the seepage was by the diffuse rather than the 
localized metliod, the outer zone of egg white was normal, the bac- 
terial content was low and the loosely bound nitrogen did not rise 
above 0.003S per cent. 
WHITE ROTS. 
If the egg, where white and jolk are just beginning to mix by 
either method of seepage, be held tmcler commercial conditions, it 
becomes what is known to egg candlers as a " white rot," or to some 
as a •• sour rot," but the latter is a misleading term and should be 
discarded. The inexpert or careless candler fails to notice these white 
rots; hence they are too often fotmd in the breaking room; when 
opened yolk and white are seen to be completely, or almost com- 
pletely, mixed. Very frequently the mixture is much thinner than 
the mixed yolk and white of a fresh egg and may or may not have 
an offensive odor. Its appearance is never appetizing. Sometimes 
scraps of mem^brane are seen, suggesting a disintegrated embryo; 
again, the contents are thin, homogeneous, and pale yellow (see 
PL ^T^I). The series of eggs given in Table 10 is typical of eggs 
having these characteristics. 
