1 28 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE ACTION OF, &c. 



to prove that a body subjected to a process of rapid decompo- 

 sition yields very different products to what it does when the 

 same process is slowly conducted. 



Now the butyric acid fermentation of sugar differs chiefly 

 from the alcoholic in the length of time which it requires for 

 its completion. The numbers and ratios, which I have here 

 (somewhat hypothetically, perhaps) placed in juxtaposition, 

 seem to indicate that the fermentation by which succinic acid 

 is formed from sugar is characterized by still greater slowness, 

 and that, by sufficiently retarding the action of ordinary 

 ferments on sugar, we may also by means of these succeed in 

 forming succinic acid in saccharine solutions, perhaps even in 

 considerable quantities. 



