Dr. Lucius Nicholls 249 



temperature is best dealt with by actual experi- 

 ments to decide the temperature at which the 

 best sample is produced. 



It will be found that the use of yeast cultures 

 produces a uniform sweating with a uniform 

 temperature. 



Cacao Sweatings. 



The juice which runs away from the sweating 

 beans is on almost all estates allowed to waste. 



Mr. Hudson has calculated that for every 

 100 bags of 200 Ib. which an estate produces 

 there are 600 gallons of this fluid. 



From the nature of the fluid, containing about 

 12 per cent, of sugar, so far as I can see at 

 present only two commercial preparations could 

 be prepared an alcoholic beverage or an acetic 

 acid condiment, that is, vinegar. The former 

 would be extremely difficult to prepare, whereas 

 a high-class vinegar can be made with ease. 



Here, again, much depends upon the pre- 

 sence of the right organisms, as the following 

 experiment shows : Four samples of the same 

 sweatings were placed in equal-sized vessels, 

 to three were added various cultures of acetic 

 acid-forming bacilli and cocci, to the fourth 

 nothing was added (it must be remembered 

 that acetic acid-producing organisms are always 

 present in sweatings). The tops of the vessels 

 were protected by tying cloth over them. At 

 the end of three weeks they were estimated 

 for acetic acid ; one gave 2*8 per cent., another 

 3*i per cent., a third 4*1 per cent., and the 

 last, to which no culture had been added, 2*5 



