280 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



ity pathological cell forms, as of pus, yeast, etc. These, in con- 

 sequence, do not represent distinct organic varieties, and 

 should not be looked upon as complete organic species, since 

 no act of reproduction, eggs nor seeds, can be recognized, 

 while the active movements of the vibriones are no indication 

 of an independent nature. There is nothing left but to regard 

 these objects, long since named pseudophytes by Miiller, as 

 pathological products, since careful observation will satisfy 

 any one that they originate within the cells of plants and 

 animals, and are not introduced into them like parasites. 

 Again, the bacteria, vibriones, etc., developing within the dis- 

 eased organ, and contributing to its rapid disorganization, 

 may become free, and induce to some extent the same disease 

 in healthy individuals, as is known with certainty of the cells 

 of different kinds of lymph, pus, bacteria, and micrococci. 

 3 C, October 27, 1873, 860. 



ALCOHOLIC FERMENTATION BY MOULD (mUCOR MUCEDo). 



The statement by Bail, and subsequently also by Rees, that 

 the germs of Mucor mucedo, when immersed in a fermentable 

 liquid, multiply by budding, like beer-yeast, and occasion al- 

 coholic fermentation, has been investigated by Fitz. The 

 liquids employed were heated, in vessels closed with cotton, 

 to the boiling-point, and after cooling were impregnated with 

 one or more germs of Mucor mucedo, readily obtained by cul- 

 tivation on horse manure in an atmosphere saturated with 

 moisture, and tested as to genuineness by means of the mi- 

 croscope. The air was allowed to remain in some of the ves- 

 sels, and displaced in others by carbonic acid immediately 

 after the germs were added. In those in which oxygen was 

 present the mucor germs developed into a luxuriant mycelium, 

 converting the sugar in its development into carbonic acid 

 and water, until all the oxygen absorbed by the liquid was 

 thus consumed, when the mycelium divided into separate 

 cells, which multiplied by budding and formed mucor-yeast. 

 In those free from oxygen the mucor germs developed direct- 

 ly, and immediately into cells increasing by budding, with 

 the separation of the sugar into the usual products of fermen- 

 tation. These results agree decidedly with Pasteur's theory. 

 It was further ascertained that mucor fermentation requires 

 a higher temperature than that of saccharomyces, and that 



