OCR Text |
Show Eggs and Microbes. Dr. McClintock of the University of Michigan has performed 1 experiments which indicate that eggs may beoome infected with microbes before they are laid. A healthy hen, after repeated washings in sterilized solutions, was placed in a sterilized caga As soon as possible after being laid a portion of her eggs were placed in sterilized cotton an then in an incubator. All these eggs de cayed and swarmed with bacteria. The remaining eggs were taken as soon as laid, and cultures were made from their contents. Some of these culture tubes developed; others remained eterila After Aft-er some days .the hen was killed, and with proper aseptic precautions culture tubes were inoculated from various portions por-tions of the oviduct Most of theso tubes developed. It would thus seem probable that the putrefactive bacteria entered z egg m its passage down the oviduct and before he shell was formed. |