346 SUGAR DESTRUCTION IN THE ECONOMY 



know them at present, which are of the most importance 

 in the transformation of sugar into alcohol and carbonic 

 acid. 



At first many thought that the molecule of sugar was 

 primarily separated into two molecules of lactic acid in 

 fermentation, and that these were thereafter broken up into 

 alcohol and carbonic acid: 



C 6 H 12 6 = 2C 3 H 6 3 ; C 3 H 6 3 = C 2 H 5 .OH + C0 2 . 



We know that lactic a,cid may very readily be broken 

 down to form acetaldehyde and formic acid: CH 3 .CHOH. 

 COOH = CH 3 .COH + H.COOH. Euler, of Stockholm, 

 noted the appearance of alcohol and carbonic acid after sub- 

 jecting lactic acid (or, instead, a mixture of equal amounts 

 of acetaldehyde and formic acid) to the influence of the 

 ultraviolet rays of a uviol lamp. 47 However, the idea that 

 lactic acid is an intermediary product of alcoholic fermenta- 

 tion was in time abandoned. Were it correct, it would be 

 necessary to suppose the lactic acid to be as easily fermented 

 by yeast as sugar, or even more easily. This, however, is 

 not the case; in fact, when lactic acid is added it remains 

 unaffected by the fermentation. 48 



Later on Eduard Buchner and Jacob Meisenheimer, 49 

 two investigators who have rendered distinguished service 

 in the elucidation of the fermentation process, were disposed 



CH 2 .OH 

 to regard dioxyacetone, isomeric to lactic acid, CO , as 



CH 2 .OH 



an intermediate product of alcoholic fermentation, because 

 they found that this substance uniformly undergoes fer- 

 mentation, not only from living yeast cells but from ex- 

 pressed juice of yeast as well, if juice extracted by boiling 

 ( containing the ' ' coenzyme " ) be added. Eecently A. Slator 



47 H. Euler (Stockholm), Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 71, 311, 1911. 

 48 A. Slator, Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Gesellsch., 40, 123, 1907. 

 **E. Buchner and J. Meisenheimer, Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Ges., 4$, 1773, 

 1910. 



