488 EECOED OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



The second slide exhibited a section cut parallel to the first, from 

 the same species of mateiial, and nearly identical with it. The slide 

 confirms the results obtained from the first, but it does not contain 

 a greater number of the supposed oospores. The third slide was 

 entirely different, having been cut from material obtained from a 

 different pit. It consists of small and disconnected fragments of 

 vegetable tissue, most probably the broken debris of several plants. 

 In and between these fragments are immense numbers of small round 

 bodies, the spores of some fungus, but no trace of mycelium or any 

 filamentous structure has been discovered. In this peculiarity they 

 very much resemble the Myxomycetes. It is just possible that the 

 fossil spores may be of a myxomycetous nature, seeing that they occur 

 in and among tissues that are partially decayed, and in so far re- 

 semble the conditions that favour the development of existing forms. 

 The size and appearance of the fossil forms also agree almost exactly 

 with that of existing specimens. 



Alcoholic Fermentation.* — To prove the existence of a soluble 

 ferment, Mr. D. Cochin prepared yeast- water from beer-yeast, accord- 

 ing to Pasteiir's method, by boiling it with water in the projiortion of 

 100 grams per litre, and filtering at once. The filtrate was mixed 

 with beer-wort, at a temperature of 25°-30' C. No fenneutation set in, 

 but on sowing some of the residue in beer-wort, fermentation took 

 place with great rapidity. This appears to contradict Berthelot's 

 statement | that a soluble ferment does exist. 



M. Berthelot in a subsequent note J points out that a liquid in 

 which yeast is actually growing does not cause alcoholic fermentation, 

 and if a soluble ferment exists at all, it must be sought for under 

 conditions analogous to those in which digestive ferments are formed, 

 viz. under the influence of the food which the ferment is intended to 

 digest. 



M. Cochin replies § to M. Berthelot's criticism and states that the 

 ferment he used was stable, contained no organisms in the state of 

 growth, and although capable of inverting sugar, did not induce alco- 

 holic fermentation. 



Fungi of Beer- wort and other Fermenting Liquids. || — M. E. C. 

 Hansen publishes the result of a very extensive series of experiments 

 carried on at the physiological laboratory at Carlsberg (Copenhagen), 

 on the organic substances found in fermenting liquids, and on their 

 presence in the atmosphere. Among a large number of results 

 obtained, the following are some of the most interesting. 



The experiments on beer were made on the wort already infused 

 with hop ; the objects of experiment were exposed to the air both 

 when there was a free current, and in the neighbourhood of a number 

 of different trees. M. Hansen confirms the statement of Tyndall and 

 Pasteur, that the Saccharomyces is not nearly so widely distributed in 



* 'Comptes Rendus,' Ixxxix. (1879) p. 786; see 'Journ. Chem. Soc.,' Abstr., 

 xsxviii. (1880) pp. 276-7. 



t Ibid., Ixxxiii. p. n. X Il^ifb, Ixxxix. p. 806. § Ibid., p. 992. 



II ' Compte Rendu Trav. Lab. Carlsbery,' ii. (1879), French resume, p. 49. 



