The Preservation of Eggs

Abstract

FEW people not directly connected with the trade have any adequate idea of the extent to which the egg of the domestic fowl is imported into this country. Whether the volume of this trade ought to be an unmixed source of satisfaction to us is another question, for there can be little doubt that if some of the energy, enterprise, and organising power which have been turned to such excellent account in Den mark, for example, were applied to the production of eggs in this country, we should be less dependent than we are on foreign supplies. Intimately bound up with this question of egg production is that of their preservation, but although much has been written on the value of particular methods, no systematic inves tigation of the conditions under which eggs must be kept to maintain and ensure their quality as food has hitherto been attempted, nor has any proper com parison been made as to the relative merits of the various methods which are practised. Those who are interested in this important subject will therefore wel come the appearance of a paper by Mr. Fr. Prall in a recent number of the Zeitschrift für Untersuchung der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel (No. 7, vol. xiv., October i, 1907, p. 445), in which the question is treated both observationally and experimentally with all the precision and care which should characterise a scientific inquiry.