Effect of composition of air on the growth and mortality of the chick embryo

✍ Scribed by Alexis L. Romanoff

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1930
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 398 KB
• Volume: 50
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0362-2525
• DOI: 10.1002/jmor.1050500210

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The fertilized hen's eggs of known origin were incubated under predetermined, standardized, and uniform conditions of all physical factors except air, the composition of which in respect to the carbon dioxide and oxygen varied in each experiment. The growth and mortality of the embryo were studied daily, with, on an average, four observations.

The experimental data show that the continuous exposure to about 0.4 per cent of carbon dioxide in the air of the incubator stimulated growth during the first part of embryonic life. A high content of carbon dioxide and at the same time a slightly reduced content of oxygen resulted in diminishing of the size and increasing of mortality of the embryo. The maximum combined proportions of these gases possible for growth of the embryo were about 22.0 and 16.3 per cent, respectively. A temporary exposure (twenty‐four and forty‐eight hours) to a large amount of carbon dioxide resulted in diminishing the size of the embryo without apparent deformities or increase of mortality.