THE MOULD-FUNGI. 109 



filtered, is subjected to a secondary fermentation, and the 

 liquid is then clear, yellow and sherry-like, containing 13 to 14 

 per cent, of alcohol. It is then commonly pasteurised at 44 

 C. in iron vessels. 



Aspergillus Oryzm, according to KELLNER, also plays an 

 important part in the preparation of Chinese Shoyn or Soy. 



The raw material is a mixture of soy beans, wheat, common 

 salt, and water. Part of the wheat is ground, steamed, and 

 mixed with koji, whilst the rest of the wheat is parched and 

 ground. Then both portions are mixed with the ground and 

 boiled beans, and the koji-fungi now cover the whole mass ; 

 the latter, after a lapse of some days, is mixed in large tuns 

 with salt and water, and then left to stand for a fermentation, 

 which often lasts several years. The liquid is then expressed 

 from the grains. 



ATKINSON has found a ferment in koji which is soluble in 

 water, inverts cane-sugar and converts maltose, dextrin, and 

 starch-paste into dextrose. The researches of KELLNER, MORI, 

 and NAGAOKA have likewise shown that the koji-mass possesses 

 a strongly invertive ferment, which converts cane-sugar into 

 dextrose and levulose, maltose into dextrose, and starch into 

 dextrin, maltose, and dextrose. The various micro-organisms 

 which occur in the koji-mass in all likelihood possess different 

 invertive ferments. 



In Java, the Aspergillus Wentii, described by WEHMER, is 

 used for the preparation of soy and the so-called " Taotjiung " 

 (bean's pulp). It occurs spontaneously on soy beans. This 

 species forms a snow-white mycelium, which is later coloured 

 brown by the globular and usually feebly warty conidia ; the 

 sterigma are not ramified. According to PPJNSEN GEERLIGS, 

 who described the technical use of the fungus, it not only 

 possesses a peptonising and diastatic ferment, but is also able 

 to partially dissolve the cell-walls of the soy beans. According 

 to WENT, this fungus also develops perithecia. 



5. MUCOR. 



The genus Mucor belongs to the most interesting of the 

 groups of mould-fungi with which we have to deal, since it 



