MICROBIOLOGY AND INDUSTRY 



alcoholic fermentation. I shall only emphasize that a microbe, used as 

 long as man remembers for the manufacture of alcoholic liquors, and 

 unquestionably studied more thoroughly than any other microbe, 

 after half a century of intensive microbiological research suddenly ap- 

 peared capable of performing hitherto unimagined chemical conver- 

 sions. If such thoroughly studied organisms as the ubiquitous yeast 

 and Asp. niger can occasion such surprises even to-day, the thou- 

 sands and thousands of microbes, thus far studied only cursorily if at 

 all, may yet offer limitless possibilities for biochemical transformations 

 that may also be important from an industrial point of view. But at 

 the same time we realize that the inflexible concept of microbes as 

 catalysts capable of performing but one specific conversion implies a 

 serious underestimate of the capacities of these organisms, and we 

 must bow before the impressive potentialities of life. 



Now one might justifiably object that, from a commercial point of 

 view, many of the above-mentioned processes have not been a lasting 

 success, and have not or only barely been able to weather the economic 

 post-war competition. To this I can only reply that I have chosen 

 these examples because they seemed to involve some ideas of general 

 significance. It should, however, not be concluded that they represent 

 the only examples of an industrial application of micro-organisms. Had 

 I wished to restrict myself to long established and renowned industries 

 in which microbes play a leading role, I might have discussed the man- 

 ufacture of wine, beer, and vinegar; the dairy industry; the retting of 

 fibres; the production of drinking water; the practice of sewage dis- 

 posal; etc. I might then also have dwelt on a few flourishing primitive 

 industries of the Orient, such as the 'ontjom'- and 'tempe'-industry in 

 Java, an industry that may well await its Calmette in order to gain 

 significance for the tropical oil industry which is now conducted on 

 a Western pattern.* 



But I might rightfully be convicted of pronounced one-sidedness if 

 I tried to advocate the misapprehension that at all times microbes are 

 the benefactors of the industrialist. Far from it; there are numerous 

 cases in which the microbes interfere in a most undesirable manner 

 in the production process. 



* Owing to Went's investigations much has been learned about the microbiol- 

 ogical process of 'ontjom' and 'tempe' production; nevertheless, a rational indus- 

 trial application of these findings has not as yet been attempted. 



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