NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 453 



Fungi. 



Relationship of Oidium albicans and Mycoderma vini. — The 

 relationship to one another of the various forms of the fungi known as 

 Schizomycetes which cause or accompany the phenomenon of fermen- 

 tation has been much debated. In an article in Virchow's 'Archiv' * 

 Grawitz concluded, from Cienkowski's descriptions and figures, the 

 identity of the " Soor-pilz," Oidium albicans, or Saccharomyces albicans, 

 with the " Kahmpilz," variously known as Mycoderma vini, Myco- 

 derma cerevisicB, Saccharomyces Mycoderma, Eormiscium vini, and 

 Hormiscium cerevisice. In the ' Sitzungsbericht der phys.-med. Soc. 

 zu Erlangen,' 1878, Eeess now contests this view, and maintains the 

 complete distinctness of the species. The two ferments can, he states, 

 be cultivated side by side under precisely similar conditions of nutri- 

 tion, supply of air, temperature, &c., without one of them passing over 

 into the other. The Mycoderma can be cultivated in cherry-juice or in a 

 strongly acid aqueous solution of ammonium acetate with a little yeast 

 and solution of cigar-ash ; even when agitated daily, the cells and 

 groups of cells never assume the forms which Oidium would take 

 under similar conditions. In the same manner cultures of Oidium in 

 solution, well supplied with nutriment and with air, can be kept for 

 as much as six weeks without any development of Mycoderma taking 

 place ; the surface of the fluid remains clear. The masses of Oidium 

 consist mostly of roundish cells formed iu much-branched groujjs, 

 mixed with which are less often to be found short filaments which bud 

 at the sej)ta. These are not to be confounded with the filaments of 

 Mycoderma produced in similar circumstances. Eeess gives a detailed 

 account of the series of experiments on which he relies for the 

 establishment of the position laid down above. f 



Alcoholic Fermentation. — M. P. Miguel % has made some 

 experiments which confirm M. Pasteur's views on fermentation. 

 When the must of grapes, which has been sterilized, is exposed to 

 the air in September, in vineyards in the south of France, and 

 put iu vessels free from germs, it generally begins to ferment after a 

 few days. This is due, he considers, to gnats, who carry through the 

 air the yeast of the vine, attached to their proboscis and to different 

 parts of their bodies. If the must is preserved, boiled and clean, 

 from the insects, at the same time permitting the air to circulate 

 freely with its numerous microbia, the must most often becomes 

 mouldy and does not ferment. 



This fact shows therefore that all the cases of spontaneous alco- 

 holic fermentation cannot be attributed to the organized " dust " 

 of the air ; on the other hand, experiments prove that air in motion 

 does carry the alcoholic yeast. It was found to abound in the 

 vineyards, whilst at Paris not a single case of spontaneous alcoholic 

 fermentation could be obtained. In Paris also it is not difficult to 

 obtain microbia exactly resembling the alcoholic yeasts. In some 

 attempts at sowing these organisms, introduced into the sterilized 



* Ixx. (1877) Part 4. t 'Hedwigia,' xvii. (1878) .56. 



X ' Comptes Rendus,' Ixxxvii. (1878) 759. 



