───────┬─────────────────┬───────────────────────── │ │ Condition at end │ │ of cure │ ├───────────┬───────────── No. of │ Treatment │ Number of │Percentage of tierce.│ │ sour hams │ sour hams ───────┼─────────────────┼───────────┼───────────── 1 │Each ham injected│ 19 │ 95 │with 10 c.c. of │ │ │culture. │ │ │ │ │ 2 │Not injected with│ 0 │ 0 │culture; check on│ │ │tierce 1. │ │ │ │ │ 3 │Each ham injected│ 9 │ 45 │with 10 c.c. of │ │ │culture. │ │ │ │ │ 4 │Not injected with│ 0 │ 0 │culture; check on│ │ │tierce 3. │ │ ───────┴─────────────────┴───────────┴───────────── Three hams from each tierce were selected for bacteriological and histological examination. From tierces 1 and 3, which contained the injected hams, three of the most pronounced “sours” were selected from each tierce. In examining the hams bacteriologically the following method was adopted: The hams were sectioned near the center of the body and the larger or butt end turned up so as to expose the cut surface. A cross section of a ham thus cut is shown in figure 3. Cultures were taken at the points indicated by the numbers and from the exposed bone marrow of the femur by first searing the surface, and then taking out plugs of the meat or marrow by means of sterile instruments. The plugs of meat or marrow were dropped into tubes containing egg-pork medium and pushed to the bottom of the tubes by means of a sterile platinum wire. In the cultures made from the sour hams from tierces 1 and 3, which were injected with culture, the bacillus with which these hams were injected was found in practically every culture, although it was sometimes absent in the cultures taken at points near the skinned surfaces of the hams (i. e., at points 1, 4, and 5 in fig. 3). In the cultures taken from the meat, the bacillus was not always present in pure culture, but this is not to be wondered at when we remember that the pickling fluids often contain large numbers of bacteria of various kinds, and these, of course, find their way into the hams in the pickling fluids. Especially is this true of the hams which are pumped in the body, where bacteria are actually pumped into the bodies of the hams in the pumping pickle. In the case of hams which are not pumped in the body, the pickle bacteria do not appear to penetrate the body of the ham to any great depth.