A. J. MACDONALD AND T. S.
KRISHNAN
309
The initial quality of the eggs used for the
summer test was somewhat below that of those
employed for the winter one, the albumen index
of the former being only 0.064 as against
0.078 of the latter. As already stated, the figures
in this test only refer to infertile eggs. Amongst
the control eggs, of the nine examined at the end
of each week, only six at the end of the first and
one each at the end of second and third weeks
were found to be in sufficiently good condition
to permit the measurement of the albumen
index. Among the preserved lots, there was
also a very sharp decline in quality during the
first week from the initial 0.064 to 0.047 and
0.051 in the water glass and lime water groups
respectively. From 1-4 weeks there was little
change in the quality of the albumen index figures
in both sets of preservatives. However, at six
weeks it was impossible to measure the albumen
index in the eggs stored in water glass but in the
lime water preserved eggs determinations were
made up to eight weeks.
(b) Yolk index
The yolk index figures recorded for the eggs
stored during both tests are presented in Table III.
The data show that the initial quality of eggs
used in the winter test was better than that
in the summer experiment, the average yolk
index figures for the former being 0.459
and for the latter 0.395. During the winter
trial, the yolk index of the control eggs decreased
from 0.459 to 0.406 in two weeks and continued
to drop steadily to 0.163 after 14 weeks of storage.
Subsequently, all the yolks broke when the eggs
were opened for examination. The average
yolk index figures of eggs preserved in lime and
salt decreased from 0.459 to 0.443 and 0.314
at the end of two and fourteen weeks of storage
respectively. The corresponding figures at two
and fourteen weeks for the eggs preserved in
lime water were 0.451 and 0.332. Whereas
among the control eggs all the yolks had broken
after 16 weeks of storage, the preserved ones
had approximately 75 per cent unbroken yolks
at 20 weeks. The average yolk indices of the
eggs preserved in lime and salt and in lime water
were 0.216 and 0.253 respectively at the end
of the experiment. Similar figures in the con-
trol eggs were recorded after only 12 weeks of
storage.
TABLE III
Variations in yolk index during storage
Period of storage
Initial quality . .
2 weeks . . .
4 „ . . .
6 „ . . .
8
„
.
.
.
10 „ . . .
12 „ . . .
14 „ . . .
16 „ . . .
18 „
.
20 „
.
Winter test
Yolk index
Controls
0.459
0.406
0.394
0.369
0.335
0.288
0.247
0.163
. .
..
..
Preserved
in lime
and salt
0.459
0.443
0.427
0.398
0.395
0.387
0.362
0.314
0.304
0.245
0.216
Preserved
in lime
water
0.459
0.451
0.432
0.419
0.425
0.380
0.389
0.332
0.336
0.288
0.253
Period of storage
Initial quality . .
1 week . . .
2 weeks . . .
3 „
. . .
4 „ . . .
5 „ . . .
6 „ . . .
7 „ . . .
8 „
.
.
.
9 „ . . .
10
„
.
.
.
11 „ . . .
Summer test
Yolk index
Controls
0.395
0.215
0.137
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
Preserved
in water
glass
0.395
0.271
0.240
0.226
0.235
0.196
0.177
0.171
0.177
0.173
0.175
0.175
Preserved
in lime
water
0.395
0.297
0.255
0.262
0.260
0.231
0.212
0.193
0192
0.185
0.185
0.194
In the summer experiment the yolk index
of the control eggs dropped from an initial figure
of 0.395 to 0.215 at the end of the. first week
and to 0.137 after two weeks. At the end of
three weeks, only three eggs out of the dozen ex-
amined had their yolks unbroken. Even among
the preserved eggs, there was a sharp fall in the
yolk index figures in the first week from an
initial 0.395 to 0.271 and 0.297 in the water glass
and lime water groups respectively. Subse-
quently, the decline, though continuous, was
at a slower rate, probably because the quality
had already declined to a low level. The figures
at the end of six weeks of storage in the water
glass and lime water preserved eggs were 0.177
and 0.212 respectively. In the former group