Dr. Wiley and others, of the Agricultural Department at Washington, have done good work on eggs, and I avail myself of some of the results. Yolk of eggs contains "lecithin," of recent discovery. Chemically, it is a fat in which phosphorus has replaced part of the hydrogen. There is much lecithin in egg yolk, and some in seeds, where it furnishes material for the growth of the embryo plant. In the egg it helps to develop the chick before hatching. Lecithin exists wherever food is stored for the embryo. The phosphorus of the nervous system comes from it, and also that of the osseous system. The fertile egg contains the enter through these pores and cause fermentation and rotting of the egg. Food fed to the hens influences the flavor of eggs. If the hen eats onions, the egg will have the flavor of onions, and so on.

Hard-boiled and fried eggs digest in three and one-half hours, so far as stomach digestion goes. Soft-boiled digest in three hours. Roasted eggs in two and one-quarter hours. Raw eggs, not whipped, in two hours. Whipped, one and one-half hours. Eggs are usually fully digested, and the time of cooking varies the time of digestion more than it does the digestibility.

The United States Department of Agriculture says that eggs are a cheap food at twelve cents per dozen; at sixteen cents, fairly cheap; and at twenty-five cents expensive food; yet a family can exist cheaper on eggs at twenty-five cents per dozen than on beefsteak at twenty cents per pound, each person eating two eggs, or four ounces of steak. This also applies to chops and such meats. Bacon and dried beef would be cheaper than the eggs. Flavor and gratification of taste must also be considered.

Desiccated eggs, egg powders, etc., are also sold, and Chinese broken eggs and egg substitutes. Chinese broken eggs come from China in bulk, emptied out of their shells. There should be a pure-food law to drive out all such stuff. One who values his health should have none of them. Eggs should be fresh always. Like virtue in a woman, they can brook no suspicion. Eggs are purin free, and this, as we shall see, is of great importance. Eggs have been looked upon as absolutely sterile as to pathogenic germs and as to their power to communicate such to man. Unfortunately, such is not really the case. Experiments at the United States Department of Agriculture show that eggs under certain conditions may cause illness by communicating some bacterial disease or some parasite. It is possible for an egg to become infected with micro-organisms either before or after it has been laid. The shell is porous and offers no greater resistance to micro-organisms which cause disease than it does to those which cause the egg to spoil or rot. When the egg is eaten raw, the micro-organisms present may be communicated to man and cause disease. This is important to know, as the use of raw eggs is growing, particularly in special diets. Tests should be made as to how much heat and how long applied will destroy these pathogenic germs in a fresh egg. If a hen soils her feet with typhoid discharges from man, and carries them to her nest, infection might come to one eating the eggs raw from that nest. Stale eggs may cause illness resembling ptomaine poisoning by elaborating poisons from themselves.

Eggs of worms, etc., have been found inside hens' eggs, also grains and seeds. The department says the lessons here taught are to keep the hens and the houses and the nests and the food and the surroundings clean. Eggs should be thoroughly washed when taken from the nests. All of these dangers spoken of and hinted at may only be possible. Certainly they are not probable to arise.

Notwithstanding the general belief to the contrary, experience shows five minutes' actual boiling to be the proper time to boil hens' eggs to make them most digestible. A ten minutes' boiling is better than three minutes. Fifteen minutes' boiling makes the yolk very digestible. The fresher the egg, the more digestible and more palatable it is.

An analysis of hens' eggs made at the Delaware College Agricultural Experiment Station shows that an egg of medium size weighs 50 grams: the shell 6 grams, the yolk 16 grams, the white 28 grams; total, 50 grams. Of one hundred parts of the edible portion, 36.3 parts equal the yolk, 63.7 parts equal the white. The white consists of water, 86 per cent.; albumin, 14 per cent The yolk consists of water, 53 per cent.; albumin, 16 per cent.; fat, 30 per cent.; salts, 1 per cent. The Agricultural Department at Washington makes the edible portion of the whole egg 14.9 per cent. albumin, on the basis of the whole egg; 32 parts in 100 represent yolk, 56 parts represent white; of the 32 parts yolk, 16 per cent. or 5.12, equal albumin; of the 56 parts white, 14 per cent, or 7.84, equal albumin.

From this it will be seen that the whole egg is fairly high in nitrogen and the yolk has considerable fat. The yolk is fairly low in nitrogen, and hence the yolk is lighter diet than the whole egg. For some reason certain persons cannot eat eggs at all, and with the sick they often disagree. During intestinal digestion sulphuretted hydrogen and ammonia are evolved and an intestinal storm ensues. The yolk here produces the disturbance. The white alone does not produce it.

As an egg becomes old it gets lighter in weight Look through a fresh egg towards the light, and it is homogeneous. If spoiled, it is opaque at the top, owing to the formation of an air-space. In salt and water, two ounces to the pint, a good egg will sink.

To coddle an egg, put it in cold water and heat it up to 1670 Fahrenheit, and keep it there until the white is cooked, say from five to seven minutes. The white coagulates firmly at 1600 Fahrenheit and the yolk coagulates firmly at a lower temperature than the white. A coddled egg is never boiled, for then the heat must reach 2120 Fahrenheit.