SCIENCE IN ITS APPLICATION. 99 



the burning of all infected waste material from an did 

 crop ; the thorough fumigation of the curing barn, by 

 burning sulphur after the removal of the crop, and 

 again two weeks before the introduction of the new 

 crop ; the sprinkling of the floor with a mixture of equal 

 parts of dry air-slaked lime and sulphur ; or even the 

 covering of the earthen floor with an inch of clean soil. 



OFFICE OF BACTERIA IN TOBACCO FEKMENTATION. 



While the curing of the tobacco is, in all probability, 

 the effect of modified activity of the leaf cells themselves, 

 the same cannot be said of the sweating. At the close 

 of the curing process the leaves are fully dead. If the 

 leaves be remoistened, packed closely together and allowed 

 to stand, an action sets up, liberating heat and introduc- 

 ing new qualities into the tobacco. Nessler * was the first 

 to explicitly declare that the process was distinctly a 

 fermentative one; although Roller f notes the addition 

 of yeast to promote the rapidity of the action, implying 

 a more or less clear recognition of the analogy between 

 this process and alcoholic fermentation. 



At the time Nessler wrote, the principles and meth- 

 ods of bacteriological research were unknown, so that 

 his reasoning from analogy could not be submitted to 

 direct proof by experiment. Since then, however, a 

 number of interesting researches have been made. Of 

 these, one of the earlier is that of Th. Schloesing J upon 

 the fermentations of tobacco used for the preparation of 

 snuff. Work by the elder Schloesing had shown that 

 there was a heavy consumption of atmospheric oxygen 

 by the fermenting tobacco. Th. Schloesing set out to 

 ascertain whether this was due to a purely chemical 

 change, or whether bacterial action was wholly or par- 



*Der Tabak, 1867, pp. 122-136. 

 tDer Tabak, Augsburg, 1858, p. 75. 



t Memorial des manufactures de 1' etat, Vol. I, Part 4, pp. 514-552; 

 Vol. II, Part 1, pp. 119-136; Part 2, pp. 192-210. 



