MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 69 
mon accumulation products of most plant tissues, such as 
starch and sugar, are digested by the cell, but preliminary 
experiments seemed to indicate that somewhat unexpected 
conditions might prevail in certain algae, and Mr. A. R. 
Davis, Rufus J. Lackland Fellow, has investigated the gen- 
eral question of ferment action, or the digestive processes, in 
the marine algae. Any new knowledge concerning the way 
in which the various ferments, or enzymes, act, whether the 
information be gained through investigation of plant or 
animal tissues, throws light upon the general inches of 
digestion. It was to gain new facts concerning the broader © 
phases of the subject as well as to study intimately the par- 
ticular nature of such enzyme action in the seaweeds that 
this research was undertaken. The seaweeds, or algae, were 
chosen because so little has been known concerning the diges- 
tion changes occurring in these plants. 
The enzymes were isolated from the tissues by standard 
methods, and when so isolated were brought into solutions or 
infusions with certain organic compounds to determine if 
the latter were then digested. If, for example, a starch paste 
were digested, that would indicate that a starch-digesting 
enzyme is produced by the plant. Again, the rates at which 
such enzymes would carry on a digestive process were com- 
pared in several instances with the rates evidenced by enzymes 
obtained from some of the flowering plants. In general, 
digestive activities were found to toca much more slowly 
in the algae, and the actual number of a demon- 
strable proved to be considerably less than those in other 
plants. One of the most ype points resulting from 
the work is the indication of the existence of certain inhibit- 
ing agents, which upon the death of the cell may unite with 
the enzymes and thus preclude its further work as an active 
digestive ferment. 
Yeast Fungi in Relation to Animal Diseases.—Consider- 
able differences of opinion have existed regarding the role 
of wild yeasts and certain other related fungi to occasional 
cases of animal diseases. Following the isolation of a species 
of yeast under suggestive conditions from a human tumor, 
Mr. W. H, Emig, formerly Rufus J. Lackland Fellow, secured 
cultures of wild yeasts from innumerable natural sources 
and sought to determine the possibility of their eC ag OK 
as regards warm-blooded animals. At considerable labor 
more than 3,000 cultures were made and all yeasts thus ob- 
tained were tested with respect to their growth on blood 
serum, the feeling being that those organisms which would 
not grow on the serum could scarcely be regarded as worthy 
of further attention from a pathogenic standpoint. Some 
