598 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXVII, No. & 
each of one week's duration, were made. In all experiments in 
which lactose was fed, except Experiment No. 2, the hens received the 
lactose with their mash on each of three successive days. The excreta 
were collected daily during these three days as well as during the four 
following days in order to allow sufficient time for the excretion of any 
unabsorbed lactose. Between successive experiments four days were 
ordinarily allowed to elapse. 
In Experiment No. 2 two grams of lactose were fed daily to each hen 
for seven days. The excreta were collected on the seventh day only. 
Four mature White Wyandotte hens were used in this investigation. 
Each hen was kept in a wire cage 15 inches wide, 24 inches long, and 14 
inches high. The wires of the cage were 2 inches apart one way and 4 
inches apart the other. In the bottom of the cage was the excreta-col- 
lection pan, which was of the same width and length as the cage and 1.5 
inches deep. It rested on flat iron grooves which held the pan firmly in 
place but which permitted removal for cleaning. The pan was made 
water-tight, of medium weight galvanized iron. Inside of the pan was 
an iron frame covered with hardware cloth. This frame was just enough 
smaller than the pan to fit closely within it and was raised about 1 
inch from the bottom. The hen stood on this frame and the excreta for 
the most part soon passed through the hardware cloth into the pan 
below. In this manner the excreta were neither trampled over nor 
scratched out and lost. The feeding and watering jars were supported 
outside the cages and protected in such a manner that the hen was 
unable to scatter feed into the collection pan. The hens seemed con¬ 
tented and appeared not to mind in the least the comparatively close 
quarters in which they were confined. 
During each experiment the collection pans were cleaned daily. An 
extria collection pan was available and was substituted for the regular 
pan while the latter was being cleaned. In cleaning the pan, the frame 
was first freed from any excreta remaining on it by scraping the excreta 
into the pan below. The pan itself was then thoroughly cleaned with a 
steel spatula. The excreted material from each hen was kept at o° to* 
4 0 C. in an air-tight, half-gallon glass fruit jar until the end of the experi¬ 
ment, when it was analyzed. In order to preserve the excreta, an equal 
mixture of alcohol and water, containing 10 per cent thymol, was poured 
over the frame each day after cleaning, the excess being caught in the pan. 
After running the solution over all parts of the pan, the excess was 
drained into the jar containing the excreta. A small amount of powdered 
thymol was also sprinkled over the excreta in the jars. 
The procedure adopted in this investigation depended upon the fact 
that the excreta from chickens fed on a cereal diet normally contain 
little, if any, reducing sugars. This was shown by Brown ( 3 ) who care¬ 
fully examined, by the phenyl-hydrazine test, the excreta of chickens fed 
on a corn diet. No trace of an osazone could be detected. Plimmer 
and Rosedale (6) found no reducing sugars in the excreta of chickens even 
when fed on a diet containing lactose. In the present investigation the 
results obtained indicate that there is no constant excretion of reducing 
sugars in chickens fed on a cereal diet. The determination of the com¬ 
pleteness of utilization of ingested lactose, therefore, consisted in the 
analysis of the excreta for reducing sugars. In all cases the quantita¬ 
tive analysis was substantiated by a qualitative examination of the 
excreta for sugars by the formation of osazones and their identification 
under the microscope. 
