_Freshly Killed Chickens._--Chickens which have been killed within twenty-four or forty-eight hours and properly kept may be regarded as freshly killed. There is a very wide-spread opinion, and probably founded on reliable experiments, that fowls are better if they are kept some time after slaughter, provided they are kept in a proper way. In the winter time it is customary, especially in Europe, to hang the fowl for a week or ten days exposed to the ordinary temperature, before consumption. This, of course, is a practice which could not be indulged in in warm weather. Fowls, however, can be hung in cold storage even in the summer time and with the same advantage which accrues by hanging them in ordinary temperature in the winter time. Just how long fowls should be kept after slaughter in this way in order to secure a maximum degree of palatability has not been scientifically determined. There is evidently a limit beyond which the keeping of slaughtered fowls should not be indulged in. If a low and even temperature could be secured it may be certain that the hanging of the fowl for a week or ten days is not too long. The temperature, however, should not be much above the freezing point. Freshly killed chickens are offered in two forms, namely, drawn and undrawn. The proper method of keeping a slaughtered chicken has been the subject of very lively discussions. There are many who are advocates of the exposure of the chicken in the undrawn state asserting that in this condition it is less exposed to infection and keeps better during the necessary time elapsing between slaughter and consumption. This argument is advanced chiefly by dealers. On the other hand the consumer, as a rule, is in favor of having the chicken drawn before it is exposed for sale, that is, as soon as it is slaughtered. There is perhaps much to be said on both sides of this question. If, however, chickens are to be secured by the consumer within forty-eight hours after slaughter there can be no very great danger of infection by having them undrawn. The subject is one of sufficient importance to warrant an extended scientific investigation and upon this investigation the municipal and state regulations for the sale of poultry can be based. It is not wise in such cases to be swayed solely by prejudice or sentiment but rather by the facts which can be ascertained by unbiased scientific investigation. Because a chicken weighs more undrawn is probably one of the reasons why dealers prefer them in this state. It may be said, too, that the intestinal organs are so impenetrable to the diffusion of their contents as not to create any danger of contamination by remaining in the undrawn state. On the contrary, the keeping of chickens with the intestinal contents undisturbed does not appeal to the imagination of the consumer any more than the freezing of the carcass of a beef or hog with the viscera remaining would appeal to the consumer. If the carcass of a chicken can