COMMERCIAL EGGS I>^ THE CENTRAL WEST. 9 
' A detailed study of the organisms isolated is now in progress in 
this laboratory. A special report will be issued dealing with this 
phase of the work. 
EXAMINATION OF EGGS OPENED ASEPTICALLY IN THE LABORATORY. 
Because of the great diversity of conditions to which an egg in 
the shell may be subjected, the corresponding variety in the results 
which may follow, and because each individual egg must be considered 
as an individual by the candler and the egg breaker, even though its 
individuality is finally lost in the mixing, drying, or freezing of the 
comnaercial product, the study to be reported here had to deal first 
with single eggs of the various types found in commerce and which 
may or may not be used by the breaker in his output intended for 
food. 
Tables 4 to 13 give the bacterial content of 300 individual eggs 
and 26 small sam^^les, aggregating 981 eggs, classified in accordance 
with their most important or striking characteristic or the one prob- 
ably responsible for the condition of the egg when it was examined. 
For example, an egg might show a heavy, settled yolk in a sound, 
clean shell, in which case it would be found in Table 5, under the 
heading of " Individual eggs with settled yolks." But if that egg, 
in addition to the settled yolk, had a dirty or cracked shell, it would 
be classed in Table 7 or Table 8, devoted to dirty-shell eggs and 
cracked-shell eggs, respectively. 
The eggs were examined by means of a candle and their appear- 
ance described before the contents of the shell were studied bacte- 
riologically. The classification of the eggs was made on these ob- 
served characteristics, and on others noticed when the shell was 
broken, rather than on the bacterial condition revealed by the labora- 
tory work. The history of these eggs was known only in a very few 
instances. None of them were " market firsts," or high-class eggs, 
when they were received. 
The study of the individual egg is logically followed by a study 
of a number of eggs which are similar when graded hj means of 
the candle and by the characteristics observed on opening. Such 
samples of like eggs, aseptically opened, follow the report of the 
individual eggs in a number of the tables. The technique used is 
described on page 74. The samples were anah^zed for the amount of 
loosely bound nitrogen they contained, as well as for the number 
of organisms. 
STALE EGGS. 
A very large proportion oi the eggs going to the breakers are 
simply stale; that is, the shell shows an enlarged air space, the yolk 
has gained in opacity and definiteness of outline, and it is com- 
