102 Transactions, dc— Annual Address. 



If other experimenters should be so fortunate as to grow the 

 same fungus and confirm these results, new views will be opened 

 concerning the nutrition of fungi, and perhaps some light may be 

 thrown upon that of the yeast-plant, the precise action of which in 

 the production of alcohol is still unknown. M. Bechamp speaks of 

 his moulds as " dis-assimilating " the alcohol, as if it were an excre- 

 tory product. It is weU known that many varieties (or states) of 

 fungi wiU produce the alcoholic fermentation, and many interesting 

 facts of this description, together with other suggestive matter, will 

 be found in the paper read by Mr. Bell before this Society and pub- 

 hshed in the July number of the Journal. Mr. Bell has hitherto 

 obtained negative results in attempts to grow the common blue 

 mould from the yeast-plant. Professor Hoffman said, in 1865, 

 " When beer -yeast is cultivated with shelter against foreign germs, 

 it gives rise to Penicillium glaucum, while the bakers' yeast, pro- 

 duced in brandy distilleries, and kept in an almost dry state, gives 

 birth either to the same plant or to Mucor racemosus conjointly with 

 it, or, more often, to the latter only. If we sow a number of the 

 spores of these plants in a saccharine solution, as, for example, 

 honey- water, we not only obtain a great quantity of pure carbonic 

 acid until the sugar is decomposed, but also yeast, which yields the 

 same products from which it was derived." * 



M. Melsens made experiments last year on the vitality of beer- 

 yeast. He found fermentation possible in the midst of melting 

 ice, a temperature at which the yeast would not germinate. The 

 hfe of the yeast-plant was not destroyed by the most intense cold 

 that could be produced, about 100° C. below zero. In close vessels 

 when the products of fermentation gave a pressure of about 25 

 atmospheres the process stopped, and the plant was killed. M. Bous- 

 singault, who was present when this communication was made to 

 the French Academy, accepted the statement, on account of the 

 known ability of M. Melsens, but he detailed experiments to show 

 that other ferments had their activity destroyed by exposure to tem- 

 peratures much less severe, or even by ordinary frost. 



It is remarkable that M. Melsens obtained a similar result when 

 experimenting with the supposed living particles of vaccine matter, 

 on which its activity has been found to depend. He kept some 

 vaccine matter for an hour and a half in sealed tubes exposed to 

 the action of solid carbonic acid and ether, coohng it down to about 

 78' C, and the report of Dr. Jacobs, of the Veterinary College, 

 Brussels, was as follows : — " Two tubes have been employed to vac- 

 cinate an infant seven months old. Five punctures gave five pus- 

 tules. One tube, used on the same day to vaccinate an infant three 

 months old, gave, with four punctures, three fine pustules." 



The amount of heat necessary to destroy all germs is still in 

 * ' Coraptes Rcndus,' Prem. Sem., p. 032. 



