[HARRISON] VISCOUS FERMENTATION OF MILK AND BEER 73 



udder viscous and yellowish, but which coagulated when milked with 

 marked acidity. This organism was presumably identical with that 

 subsequently isolated by Hess and Borgeaud ^^ from cows suITering from 

 contagious inflammation of the udder. Flûgge ^- and Vignal ^" have 

 shown that B. mesentericus vulgatus produced slimy milk. This widely 

 distributed bacillus has often been found in milk and produces sliminess 

 but not stringiness. It may be interesting to note at this point that 

 this organism, or varieties of it, have been lassociated with slimy or 

 sticky bread by a number of observers. Thus, TJffelmann ^* found this 

 organism in rye bread which had become sticky. Kratschmer and 

 Niemilowitz ^^ have cited a case where graham bread underwent a sim- 

 ilar change. Eussell ^^ has noticed this slimy decomposition in wheat 

 bread. Vogel " has characterized, under the name of Bacillus mesen- 

 tericus panis viscosi I and II, two varieties of this organism isolated from 

 sticky bread. 



Schutz isolated from a sample of slimy milk from j\[arne in 

 Schleswig, a micrococcus subsequently described by von Eatz,^^ and 

 named by Migula ^^ Micrococcus mucilaginosus. This coccus was oval 

 in form, 2.1 /^ long and 1.2 /.i broad. It generally appeared in pairs 

 which were surrounded by a capsule which, however, was not present 

 in any other culture media but milk. It produced sliminess in steri- 

 lized milk after 30 and 40 hours' growth at 32° C. The sliminess 

 was directly proportional to the age of the inoculating material. When 

 this was fresh, sliminess took place rapidlj^ whilst if the inoculating 

 material w^as 11 days old, 5 or more days was necessary to bring about 

 this condition. 



Loeffler ^o in 1887 isolated from milk a thick, bent rod which 

 quickly broke up into small coccus-like segments and gave a slight 

 sour reaction to milk and a specific odour. The milk could be drawn 

 out into long threads, especially when taken from the depths. The 

 name given to it was Bacillus lactis pituitosi. 



In Holland the Dutch cheesemakers use a culture or "starter" of 

 ropy whey (Dutch-lange Wei) in the manufacture of Edam, cheese. 

 The first experiments with this ropy whey were made in the "fifties" 

 by a farmer of Assenfeldt, in Holland, and thus the value of this 

 culture was discovered by cheesemakers long before bacteriologists knew 

 anything about it. In this process of cheesemaking (described and 

 recommended by Boeckel -^ in 1887 and now often kno^ai in Holland as 

 Boeckel's process), a quantity of slimy whey 'is added to the milk, 

 before it is made into cheese, and is found to have a marked effect 

 on the ripening by hastening the process, the inoculated cheeses being 

 ready for market in a third less time than other cheese not so 



