Dr. Axel Preyer 23 



Chittenden at first expressed the opinion that 

 the soluble or liquid matters penetrate through 

 the leathery skin in the seeds, and produce the 

 change in taste and colour. He proves the 

 possibility of this theory by a trial, in which 

 the cotyledons of a cacao bean were coloured 

 red after beincr immersed in a fuchsin solution 



o 



for a few hours. The leathery skin is also 

 permeable, at least by some substance. I re- 

 peated this trial in the following manner. On 

 the one side I used fresh seeds, on the other, 

 seeds fully intact but fermented for several 

 days ; both were put into an alcoholic fuchsin 

 solution, and after twenty-four hours cross-sec- 

 tions were examined. The fresh beans showed 

 (even after forty-eight hours) no trace of a red 

 colouring of the germ leaves ; the fuchsin solu- 

 tion had only percolated through the pulp, and 

 no further. On the other hand, the fermented 

 seeds had intensely red-brownish coloured 

 cotyledons after one still (more after two) day's 

 immersion, whilst other fermented seeds not 

 treated with fuchsin were of a pale brownish 

 colour inside ; therefore the fuchsin colouring 

 matter had penetrated through the hitherto 

 impermeable leathery skin. During the micro- 

 scopical examination of the coloured beans it 

 was found that through the fermentation a 

 loosening of the hard cells takes place, so that 

 the hitherto impenetrable layer is now loosened, 

 exposing the middle fibrous layer and, more 

 especially, allowing the inner cells to be acted 



