SACCHAROMYCETES. 255 



industries in this country ; but so far, it is understood, without 

 much success, owing, as it is generally believed, to the difference 

 of the working conditions obtaining in English breweries, where 

 the fermentation, conducted in a strong malt infusion at tempera- 

 tures ranging from 55° to 8o^F., differs greatly from the slowprocess 

 carried on at 38" to 50*^ F. in a malt wort of low specific gravity, 

 which is general in Germany, The writer has good reason to 

 think, from his own observation, that not only the conditions of 

 growth differ, but that there is a distinct racial difference, so to say, 

 between English {fermentation a haute) and Continental {fer^nen- 

 tatiofi a bas) yeasts. The indications of this are especially 

 marked among the yeasts employed in old-fashioned Scotch 

 breweries, where for generations "changes" have been avoided, but 

 where absolutely necessary they have been obtained from a local 

 brewery of the same class, with the object oi preserving the peculiar 

 characteristics for which Scotch beers are known. This would, of 

 course, tend to preserve the type of yeast unchanged, and accord- 

 ingly it is among those that the widest and most marked diver- 

 gencies from the Continental type are to be found, the interval 

 being to some extent filled up by the yeasts in use in different 

 districts in England. The limits of the present article do not 

 admit of entering upon this attractive field, about which more 

 may be said on another occasion. The method of identifying 

 species by the separation of a single cell and its culture under 

 fixed conditions of temperature, until the formation of spores is 

 observed to commence, has been explained, and it is hoped that 

 with the aid of the chart on the next page the reader will have no 

 difiiculty in obtaining a clear comprehension of this most interest- 

 ing subject. 



On the reopening of an old mine at Bangor, Cal, U.S.A., a 

 few months ago, flies were found in a dry slope connecting two 

 shafts, all white except the eyes, which were red, and a white 

 rattlesnake was killed. The animals had lived in the dry passages, 

 where they had been supplied with air, but not with light. A few 

 of the flies, exposed to light in a glass case, recovered their proper 

 colour in a week. 



