PUKE CULTURE FERMENTS IN VINEGAR. 399 



doned both in France and Germany, where it was introduced by 

 E. WURM (I.). Up to the present it does not appear that any one 

 has attempted to work with really pure cultures. 



In the second method actually employed for making vinegar, 

 spirit is used instead of wine. This method has been evolved 

 from that originally prescribed by Hermann Boerhave, and has 

 attained its present condition (since 1823) mainly through the 

 instrumentality of Karl Schiizenbach. The French term it the 

 " German method," but in Germany it is generally known as the 

 "quick vinegar method" (Schnellessiy- Fabrication). A detailed 

 description cannot be given here, but the gist of the process con- 

 sists in slowly running the "goods" (i.e. spirit diluted with vinegar) 

 to be turned into vinegar over shavings or strips of beechwood 

 contained in a closed vat (the vinegar-generator), so that the liquid 

 presents a large surface to the air, which is admitted through 

 special ventilating holes below and makes its escape at the top. 

 That the fermentative activity of micro-organisms also comes into 

 play in this method can no longer be doubted since the searching 

 investigations of Pasteur, which were confirmed (on repetition) by 

 Mayer and Knieriem. Pasteur showed that no acidification takes 

 place if the alcohol be allowed to trickle over shavings destitute of 

 fungi. He assumed that the organism taking part in the quick 

 vinegar process is the same as that forming the superficial skin in 

 the Orleans method, the fungus being supposed to settle on the 

 shavings in the vinegar-generator and convert the slowly-running 

 vinegar goods into acetic acid. Up to the present no precise 

 investigations on the bacteria acting in this branch of industry 

 have been made public. This highly necessitous industry has, 

 more perhaps than any other, to struggle against a variety of diffi- 

 culties ; the actual losses of alcohol are enormous, and no one is 

 able to offer any reliable explanation of their cause. The intro- 

 duction and intelligent use of suitable pure culture ferments would 

 be a great boon. How much still remains to be done and ascer- 

 tained in this instance can be estimated by a comparative glance 

 at the conduct of fermentation in the operation of brewing. Not 

 least among the advantages to be derived from such a method of 

 working which we may hope will soon be elaborated would be 

 the possibility (not afforded by the present method) of combating 

 the " vinegar eels." With regard to these objectionable parasites, 

 it may be mentioned that detailed morphological and physiolo- 

 gical information concerning Anguillula aceti will be found both 

 in Czernat's monograph (excerpts from which are contained in 

 Borgmann's translation of Pasteur's Etudes sur le Vinaigre) and in 

 a treatise by G. LINDNER (I.), which latter work chiefly deals with 

 the pathogenic potency of these worms. As SADEBECK (I.) has 

 found, these parasites are occasionally themselves infested and killed 

 by a fungoid parasite belonging to the group of Oomycetes (mentioned 

 in the second volume), and known as Pythium Anguillulce aceti. 



