46 



MICROBES, FERMENTS, AND MOULDS. 



botanist in Munich, demonstrates the action of micro- 

 scopic fungi on organic substances, exclusive of any 

 previous deterioration. 



" I enclosed," he says, " seyeral loaves in a tin case, 

 which was carefully but not hermetically closed. 

 When the case was opened at the end of eighteen 

 months, the loaves were reduced to a small mass, 

 consisting almost entirely of filaments of mould, in 

 which I could detect no trace of the substance of 

 bread. This mass was soft and moist, like a mud-pie. 

 It emitted a strong odour of trimethylamin : no trace 

 of starch remained. One hundred parts in weight 

 of the original bread were transformed into sixty-four 

 parts in their moist state, and seventeen parts after 

 desiccation in the open air. The 

 starch had been consumed in order 

 to form carbonic acid and water." 



Badham sums up in a few 

 words the destructive effects of 

 microscopic fungi. " Mucor mu- 

 cedo," he writes, " devours our pre- 

 serves; Ascophora mucedo turns 

 our bread mouldy; Molinia, is 

 nourished at the expense of our 

 fruits; Mucor herbarium destroys 

 the herbaria of botanists; and 

 Chcetonium chartatum (Actino- 

 spora) develops itself on paper, on the insides of books, 

 and on their binding, when they come in contact with 



Fig. 19. Chcetoniitm, char- 

 tatum, mould on paper. 



