THEORY OF FERMENTATION 313 



dustries of which they are the life and soul. In the case of 

 ordinary moulds, the opposite holds good. What we want 

 to use special experimental apparatus for with them, is to 

 enable us to demonstrate the possibility of their continuing 

 to live for a time out of contact with air, and all our at- 

 tention, in their case, is attracted by the facility with which 

 they develop under the influence of oxygen. Thus the de- 

 composition of saccharine liquids, which is the consequence 

 of the life of fungi without air, is scarcely perceptible, and 

 so is of no practical importance. Their aerial life, on the 

 other hand, in which they respire and accomplish their 

 process of oxidation under the influence of free oxygen 

 is a normal phenomenon, and one of prolonged duration 

 which cannot fail to strike the least thoughtful of observers. 

 We are convinced that a day will come when moulds will 

 be utilised in certain industrial operations, on account of 

 their power in destroying organic matter. The conversion 

 of alcohol into vinegar in the process of acetification and 

 the production of gallic acid by the action of fungi on wet 

 gall nuts, are already connected with this kind of phe- 

 nomena." On this last subject, the important work of M. 

 Van Tieghem (Annales Scientifiques de 1'Ecole Normale, 

 vol. vi.) may be consulted. 



The possibility of living without oxygen, in the case of 

 ordinary moulds, is connected with certain morphological 

 modifications which are more marked in proportion as this 

 faculty is itself more developed. These changes in the 

 vegetative forms are scarcely perceptible, in the case of 

 pcnicillium and mycoderma vini, but they are very evident 

 in the case of aspcrgilhis, consisting of a marked tendency 

 on the part of the submerged mycelial filaments to increase 

 in diameter, and to develop cross partitions at short inter- 

 vals, so that they sometimes bear a resemblance to chains 



"We shall show, some day, that the processes of oxidation due to 

 growth of fungi cause, in certain decompositions, liberation of ammonia 

 to a considerable extent, and that by regulating their action we might cause 

 them to extract the nitrogen from a host of organic dtbris, as also, by 

 checking the production of such organisms, we might considerably increase 

 the proportion of nitrates in the artificial nitrogenous substances. By cul- 

 tivating the various moulds on the surface of (lamp bread in a current of 

 air we have obtained an abundance of ammonia, derived from the decom- 

 position of the albuminoids effected by the fungoid life. The decomposition 

 of asparagus and several otber wuto.%1 or vegetable substances has given 

 similar result*. 



