Dr. A. Schulte im Hofe 89 



Studies on Cacao Fermentation conducted in 

 Germany. 



Dr. H. Salzmann, of Berlin, kindly placed 

 his laboratory, and Messrs. Theodor Hilde- 

 brand and Son in Berlin any quantity or 

 quality of cacao I might desire, at my disposal, 

 for the purpose of this investigation. 1 had 

 unfortunately neglected to bring some freshly 

 dried, unfermented beans with me. However, 

 I found among the different samples of cacao 

 some beans in which the process of oxidation 

 had only slightly advanced. In some of the 

 samples I even found beans on which acetic 

 ferments had not yet acted. I shall refer to 

 these later. 



Carrying out these experiments in Germany 

 had the great advantage that the practical 

 value of the results could always be immedi- 

 ately tested by experts ; this enabled one to 

 judge which direction further experiments 

 should take. This essential assistance was 

 given me by Messrs. Theodor Hildebrand 

 and Son. 



As space prevents me from giving a detailed 

 account of all the extensive laboratory experi- 

 ments that I carried out, and the results they 

 yielded, I shall restrict myself to stating the 

 main results arrived at. In the first place, I 

 again proved that a higher temperature 

 accelerates the processof oxidation, and that the 

 latter takes place more rapidly at 50 to 60 C. 

 (122 to 140 F.) than at 30 to 40 C. (86 to 



