( 686 ) 



Sen'us') and particularly those of Hoppe Seyler') and of Omelianski^) 

 proved, that cellulose may be broken up by anaerobic bacteria, with 

 production of methane and carbon dioxide, or hydrogen and carbon 

 dioxide and simultaneous formation of acetic and butyric acids. In 

 this communication it Avill be shown that cellulose may also be 

 rendered soluble by aerobic bacteria. In the first place it was jn-oved, 

 that this substance may serve as a source of carbon for denitrifying 

 bacteria and may, therefore, be made to disappear with great raj)idity 

 in tlie presence of nitrates. But it could also be shown that cellulose 

 is tit as a carbonfood for common aerobic bacteria and altliough the 

 solution then takes place slowly, there can be no doubt about tlie 

 decomposition. The products derived from the cellulose play an 

 important role in the nutrition of other microbes particularly the 

 spirillae, so that an elegant accunndation experiment may be based 

 on tlie use of cellulose as a source of carbon. 



Although the destruction of cellulose by anaerobic or aerobic 

 bacteria requires a faintly alkaline medium, it may, with sufticient 

 aeration, also be acted on in a faintly acid surrounding by various 

 moulds and mycelia of highei- fungi. This was lirsl demonstrated in 

 1886 bv DE Baky for the genus Peziza and the same was shown 

 by later observers for other moulds, whilst the destruction always 

 appeared to be due to the action of an enzyme. Here we will prove 

 that the power possessed by moulds to attack cellulose is not confined to 

 certain species only, as one might imagine from the existing literature, 

 but that a great number of the species of this group share that property. 



Finally, I wish to observe that I will occupy myself exclusively 

 with the destruction of pure cellulose and not with that of lignified 

 aud corky cell-walls, where in the first i)lace higher fungi are at 

 work, as is shown by the i-esearches of R. Hartig *). 



1. The decomposition of cellulose hy (lenitrifi/ing bacteria. 



Meusel ') states in 1871 that in the presence of cellulose bacteria 



1) Bijdrage tot de kennis der cellulosegisting. Dissertation, Leonards, at Leiden, 

 1890, (this contains a very complete literary review). 



-) Ueber die Gahriing der Cellulose mit Bildung von Methan u. Kohlensaure, 

 Zeitschr. f. Phys. Ch. Bd. 10, 1886, S. 401. 



3) Sur la fermentation de la cellulose, C. R. t. 1-21, 1895, p. 653. — Sur un 

 ferment de la cellulose, C. R. t. 125, 1897, p. 970. — Sur la fermentation cellu- 

 losique, C. R. t. 125, 1897, p. 1131. — Ueber die Gahrung der Cellulose, Gentrbl. 

 f. Bakt. Abt. II, Bd. 8, 1902, S. 193. 



'') Die Zersetzungsersclieinungen des Holzes, Berlin 1878. 



5) De la putrefaction produite par les bactéries en presence des nitrates alcalius 

 C. R. t. 81, 1876, p. 533. Nitritbildung durcb Bacteriën, Ber. d. d. cb. G. Bd. 8, 1875, S. 

 1214. 



