MECHANISM OF DEATH 



325 



The close parallelism of the lines indicates that the bacteria con- 

 cerned as well as enzymes and albumin are all supposed to have 

 practically the same temperature coefficient. This is not correct 



Fig. 37. — Lines of equal destruction by heat and time, for bacteria and 

 compounds of milk. All temperature coefficients are extremely high (approxi- 

 mately Qio =11) except for Vitamin C which is normal. 



(see Table 97). Otherwise, this well-known graph represents the 

 behavior of bacteria towards heat quite correctly. 



Vitamin C has probably a normal temperature coefficient (Rahn, 

 1925) and its curve crosses all others. Prolonged holding at fairly 

 low temperatures destroys more of this vitamin than short exposing 



