From chinates result by 



Protoca- 



techetic 



acid 



Calcium- 



carbonate as 



crystals 



Remarks 



Bacillus prodigiosus 



punctatus 

 Aerobacter coli 



aerogenes 



liquefaciens 



Pseudomonas aromatica 



fluorescens non liquefaciens 



fluorescens liquefaciens 

 pyocyaneus 



Proteus vulgaris 

 Microspira tyrosinatica 

 Micrococcus calco-aceticus 

 Acetic acid bacteria 

 Yeast species 



H- 



Some varieties 



Some varieties 

 Some varieties 



All varieties 



This table shows that the common species which oxidise chinate to protocate- 

 chetic acid, namely the fluorescents, also embrace varieties devoid of this faculty. 



The second column is but of relative value, for a numbre of bacteria oxidise the 

 chinate and grow from it with great intensity without crystallisation of the thereby 

 formed calciumcarbonate. The chinates, belong (with the malates) to the most easily 

 assimilable organic salts for non-sporulating bacteria in general. 



It is remarkable that there do not seem to exist spore-forming bacteria which 

 produce protocatechetic acid, for I did not succeed in obtaining microbes from pa- 

 steurised materials, such as garden soil or canal mud, which, in solutions or on plates 

 of the before given composition gave rise to an obvious change of colour. But by 

 various spore-formers calciumchinate was changed into carbonate, though slowly. 



With exclusion of air solutions of chinate are apt to come into fermentation, as 

 was already observed by Low, whereby carbonic acid, acetic and propionic acid are 

 formed. Hydrogen was not found; the inferred microbes belong to Aerobacter 

 aerogenes and allied forms. 



2. Oxidation of Quercite to Pyrogallic acid by Pseudomonas aromatica. 



The knowledge that chinic acid derived from the hexamethylene ring (hexa- 

 hydrotetraoxybenzoic acid) can so readily be converted by many microbes into an 

 aromatic substance, easily demonstrated by the ferri-reaction, suggested the question 

 if substances exist, related to chinic acid, that behave similarly. 



This consideration induced to subject quercite to an investigation analogous to 

 the foregoing, the structure of this substance being the hexamethylene ring, in which 

 5 atoms of hydrogen have been replaced by hydroxyl. It was proved that also here, 

 under the influence of life, an aromatic substance is easily produced, but at the same 

 time that addition of a ferrisalt to indicate that substance is superfluous; further, 



