HYDROGEN-ION CONCENTRATION OF ALBUMEN AND YOLK OF THE DEVELOPING AVIAN EGG

¹ Agricultural Experiment Station, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

The observations on incubated eggs of chicken, pheasant, quail, turkey, duck, and goose clearly indicate that changes in hydrogen-ion concentration of albumen, and of dense and liquefied portions of yolk are similar for all species studied, and suggest a pattern which may be characteristic of all avian eggs. In the albumen there is a rapid rise in pH, then a fall; in the dense yolk, a gradual rise with a slight fall at hatching; and in the liquefied yolk during its existence, high pH value without change.

The initial pH value of egg albumen during embryonic development depends chiefly upon the preincubation age of the egg—fresh eggs would give low, while older eggs would give high pH values of albumen at the beginning of incubation.