116 THE BIOLOGY OF DAILY LIFE. 



"A saccharine solution will not ferment 

 spontaneously. If it begins to ferment, yeast has 

 undoubtedly got into it in some way or other." 



So these mouldly Torula?, if not yeast themselves, 

 must be possessed by yeast, because they certainly cause 

 fermentation. " These Torulce are the i particles ' in 

 the yeast which have the power of provoking fermenta- 

 tion in sugar" (p. 379), and the Torulae of the mould- 

 family do likewise. 



But the Amoeba is an animal, and the Torula in two 

 ways proves itself to be a plant. [First by its coat, 

 and secondly, by its power of l catching a Tartrate' and 

 turning it to its own use.] 



"Torula is an indubitable plant for two 

 reasons. In the first place, its protoplasm is 

 invested by a cellulose coat, and thus has the 

 distinctive character of a vegetable cell. 

 Secondly, it possesses the power of con- 

 structing Protein out of such a compound as 

 Ammonium Tartrate, and this power of manu- 

 facturing Protein is distinctively a vegetable 

 peculiarity. Torula then is a plant, but it 

 contains neither starch nor chlorophyll, and 

 it cannot obtain the whole of its food from 

 inorganic compounds, thus differing widely 

 from the green plants. On the other hand it 

 is in these respects at one with the great group 

 of Fungi. Like many of the latter its life is 

 wholly independent of light, and in this respect 

 again it differs from the green plants" (p. 382). 

 A little further on we read (p. 383) : 



" It has been further ascertained that Torulse 



