
1913] CURRENT LITERATURE 509 
In connection with these experiments Kossowt1cz" has examined the action 
of the extracts of six of the species of fungi on uric acid and on hippuric acid. 
He confirms the results of earlier investigators who have shown that the 
fermentation of hippuric acid is an enzymatic process, and shows also that the 
decomposition of uric acid by fungi is a process of similar nature. Extracts of 
Aspergillus niger, Mucor Boidin, Phytophthora infestans, Isaria farinosa, and 
Botrytis Bassiana were found to ferment both acids, while extracts of Clado- 
Sportum herbarum acted only on uric acid. 
The acceptance of the liberation of ammonia as a criterion of the fermenta- 
tion of hippuric acid has been criticized by Dox and Nem1c,'s who find as a 
result of quantitative determinations of the glycocoll produced in the process 
that ammonia is formed only in small quantities as a result of secondary 
decomposition of glycocoll. 
€ mode of absorption and utilization of fats by fungi has been investi- 
gated by SpreckeRMANN.*© By means of cultures on infusorial earth, from 
which the residual acids could be extracted, he was able to show that the 
higher fatty acids in the form of their salts (soaps, especially the calcium and 
the ammonium soaps whose decomposition does not result in the accumulation 
of strong alkali in the cultures) are utilized to a large extent. The somewhat 
contrary results of Scumupr are to be ascribed to his use of alkali soaps whose 
decomposition caused too great a degree of alkalinity of the culture medium. 
In cultures on agar plates in which sodium nitrate was present and in which the 
free fatty acids were distributed in a finely divided state throughout the agar, 
a broad clear zone, indicating the formation of soap by the action of the alkali 
Set free by the utilization of the nitrate group, appeared around the colonies. 
€n ammonium sulphate was used instead of sodium nitrate a narrower zone 
appeared about the colonies, showing that even in the acid medium an extra- 
cellular solution of the fatty acids takes place, although the process here is not 
as readily explained as in the first case. Similar phenomena observed with 
teference to fats show that they also undergo extracellular solution before being 
absorbed by living cells. From these observations the author concludes that 
fats are taken into the cell in the form of soaps or as free fatty acids. 
As a result of an examination of a large number of yeasts and other budding 
fungi, as well as a number of filamentous forms found in connection with 
the industries dependent on fermentation, LINDNER and CzIsER” find that the 
el 
ie * Kossowicz, A., Die enzymatische Natur der Harnsiure- und Hippursdure- 
Zeitschr. Girungsphysiol. 1:121-123. 1912; also 1:317-319- aes : 
e ** Dox, A. W., and Newic, R. E., E atische Spaltung von Hippursdure 
durch Schimmelpilze. Zeitschr. Physiol. Chem. 85:68-71. 1913. in oa 
__, * SPIECKERMANN, A., Die Zersetz der Fette durch hdhere Pilze. I. De 
Abbau des Glycerins und *  Seaeetaben Fette in die Pilzzelle. Zeitschr. Unters. 
Nahrungs- und Genussmittel. 23: 305-331. pls. 3. 1912. : 
” LINDNER, P., und Cziser, S., Der Alkohol, ein mehr oder weniger ausgezeich- 
heter Nahrstoff fiir verschiedene Pilze. Wochenschr. Brauerei 29:1-6. 1912. 

