Histological Observations on the Formation of the Chalaza in the Hen’s Egg

CONRAD and Phillips (1938) have shown that the concentration of mucin in the gel adjacent to the yolk of a forming egg remains at a constant and high level for the first five hours in the oviduct, decreases rapidly from the fifth to the ninth hour and remains at a constant low level thereafter. That the inner thin fraction of white does not owe its origin to the chemical destruction of mucin is indicated by their in vitro experiments. The decrease in viscosity of the gel was observed to occur simultaneously with the decrease in mucin and the first indication of the chalazae. A consideration of these points led them to suggest that a mechanical segregation of the mucin fibers, to form the chalazae and the chalaziferous layer of white, is responsible for the observed decrease in mucin of the inner thin fraction of egg white. Histological evidence will be . . .