72 AGRICULTURAL BACTERIOLOGY. 



called cellulose, a material somewhat closely related to starches 

 though different from them. Cellulose is a very important 

 product of plant life, being present in large quantities in wood 

 structures, and, indeed, in all plant growths, since it is the 

 basis of the walls of ordinary plant cells. One of the purest 

 forms of cellulose is the filter paper used by chemists. Cel- 

 lulose undergoes a fermentation of a marked character due to 

 bacteria. It has been determined by Omelianski that filter 

 paper, when well moistened with water, undergoes a complete 

 fermentation and is eventually destroyed. The microorganism 

 that ferments it is a bacillus named from its discoverer, B. 

 oinclianski. It is a spore-forming organism which has been 

 isolated and carefully studied. Pure cultures of this organism 

 have the power of fermenting cellulose, the complete action 

 requiring three to five months. As a result of this fermenta- 

 tion there are liberated considerable quantities of carbonic acid, 

 hydrogen, and certain volatile acids, as well as alcohol, all of 

 which readily pass into the atmosphere and become incorpo- 

 rated with this primary source of plant food. This fermenta- 

 tion of cellulose is clearly a matter of great significance. Con- 

 sidering how large an amount of carbon is, in the course of 

 generations, locked up by plant life in the form of cellulose, it 

 is manifestly important that there should be some agency for 

 unlocking the combination if the supply of atmospheric carbon 

 is to be kept constant. The bacteria which ferment cellulose 

 are constantly at work pulling down the cellulose which has 

 been built up by plants, reducing it to its simpler ingredients, 

 to serve again as plant food. 



The chemical changes which occur in the fermentation of 

 cellulose cannot yet be given. It is quite probable that more 

 than one species of bacterium may have this power. Some 

 years ago it was claimed that B. amylobacter (a well-known 

 species) could ferment cellulose, a conclusion which has never 

 been very satisfactorily demonstrated. The organism of 



