Miscellaneous. 301 



ture which must not exceed 48^^, nor go below 32*^ Fahr. ; this 

 is the ferment in Bavarian beer. The most beautifully developed 

 top ferment is that of Berlin white beer, which multiplies at a tem- 

 perature of about 77°. Bottom ferment consists of single globules 

 of various sizes. The author never observed a small globule to be 

 formed on any part of a large one ; the smaller globules are always 

 diffused throughout the liquid. In top ferment scarcely ever could 

 any single small globules be detected, but only large ones, at the 

 extremities of which the smaller globules were developed, thus 

 forming ramifications. These increase therefore by the production 

 of gems ; the bottom ferment, on the contrary, by small globules 

 growing isolated in the liquid. The author exhibited drawings of 

 the two species of ferment in the various periods of their develop- 

 ment. In the older ferment an envelope and granular contents 

 may be readily distinguished, which becomes however more evident 

 on the addition of a drop of aqueous solution of iodine. By means 

 of a compressorium invented by the author, the granular contents 

 may be easily pressed out under the microscope. The author con- 

 siders it probable that in the bottom ferment the globules burst and 

 disburthen themselves of their contents, from each granule of which 

 a new globule is developed, so that the bottom ferment would be 

 multiplied by sporules. 



Substances which act as poisons on fungi destroy the action of 

 ferment, for instance corrosive sublimate, and other substances of 

 similar nature ; but liquids which act most violently on the animal 

 frame, such as tartar-emetic, in solutions of which fungi very readily 

 develop, do not disturb the process of fermentation. 



Several fungi which are known as vegetable diseases are similarly 

 circumstanced, as for instance dry rot to woody fibre ; and with 

 these facts a new field is evidently opened, explanatory of the 

 decompositions wdiich the roots of plants are capable of effecting in 

 the soil ; and it may be expected that we shall be able to demon- 

 strate by experiment, what general experience has shown, that the 

 roots of plants, when unable to obtain from the atmosphere the sub- 

 stances requisite for their development, take them from the soil ; and 

 it is not improbable that the roots themselves effect the necessary 

 decomposition of the substances contained in the soil, just as the 

 greater portion of vegetables obtain the requisite substances for their 

 first development from the seed itself. Although this is difficult to 

 prove in the higher order of plants, it may be proved more defi- 

 nitely in the lower tribes, especially in the fungi, as for instance in 

 the champignon. The process of fermentation is therefore of con- 

 siderable interest. One of the most important chemical combina- 

 tions is decomposed by a contact-substance, which contact-substance 

 is an organized being belonging to the most simple forms, the deve- 

 lopment of which may be traced in the most easy and certain 

 manner ; but its first origin is moreover of great interest, for it is 

 formed in a liquid in which it appears as numerous points so small 

 as to escape observation. — Poggendorff's Annalen, No. 5 for 1843. 



