680 DETERIORATION OF SUGAR CRYSTALS IN BULK, 



With regard to the inverting action of the ordinary lactic 

 bacteria, it may be said that any invertive power which they 

 have must result from the hydrolytic activity of lactic acid, for 

 according to Reynolds Green, and also Lafar, there are but few 

 bacteria known which secrete invertase, and these do not include 

 the lactic bacteria. Lactic acid undoubtedly causes the inversion 

 of saccharose, and there is no reason why a comparatively small 

 amount of acid should not in an indefinite time produce a com- 

 paratively large inversion. I have quoted Shorey chiefly to show 

 how one might be led astray by a ])7^iori reasoning, for his remarks 

 about the Hawaiian sugars would apply equally to these Austra- 

 lian samples. Bacillus levaniformans is an organism that plays 

 many parts. It is at once a lactic and a butyric acid ferment, 

 and it is capable of inverting a comparatively large amount of 

 sugar, probably through the action of invertase, for the heavy 

 inversion points to the presence of this enzyme.* Furthermore, 

 it cannot be doubted that its spore-forming faculty and its gum 

 capsule enable it to survive and vegetate under conditions which 

 would be adverse to most other forms of bacterial life. 



And now a word about the distribution of the organism. The 

 habitat of Bac. levanifonaans is not restricted to one set of mills 

 and one refinery, but it is widely distributed. It may be the 

 cause of the deterioration of the Hawaiian sugars, and it certainly 

 occurs in the Australian mills. I have examined a set of samples 

 of raw and refined sugars from various parts of the world. These 

 I received from the Colonial Sugar Refining Co., with the infor- 

 mation that the sugars had been kept in tightly stoppered bottles 

 and had been opened only to send me smaller samples. The 



* A sterile culture solution with 0-08% lactic acid ( = the acidity of a culture) 

 was placed in the incubator for four days at 37°. At the end of this time 

 2 '8% reducing sugars were found. As the acidity in a culture of the bacillus 

 does not reach 0"08 % for 24 hours, we should allow a day and compare the 

 four days' inversion by acid with a five days' inversion by bacteria. The 

 great difference in the amount of reducing sugars, between 2'8 (a four days' 

 acid inversion) and 50 (the reducing sugars in a five days' culture) shows 

 that a strong inverting agent is secreted by the bacilli. 



