258 STUDIES ON FERMENTATION. 



volume of this air, and weighing, after drying, the amount 

 of plant formed, we find that for a certain quantity of oxygen 

 absorbed we have a certain weight of mycelium, or of mycelium 

 together with its organs of fructification. In an experiment of 



Tig. 66. 



this kind, in which the plant was weighed a year after its 

 development, we found for 0*008 gramme (0'123 grain) of 

 mycelium, dried at 100° C. (212° F.), an absorption that 

 amounted to not less than 43 c.c. (1'5 cubic inches) of oxygen, 

 at 25°. These numbers, however, must vary sensibly with the 

 nature of the mould employed, and also with the greater or 

 less activity of its development, because the phenomenon is 

 complicated by the presence of accessory oxidations, such as we 

 find in the case of mycoderma vini and aceti, to which cause 

 the large absorption of oxygen in our last experiment may 

 doubtless be attributed.* 



* In these experiments, in which the moulds remain for a long time in 

 contact with a eacchariue wort out of contact with oxygen — the oxygen 

 being promptly absorbed by the vital action of the plant (see our Memoire 

 sur Jes Oenerations elites Spoidanees, p. 54, note) — there is no doubt that an 

 appreciable quantity of alcohol is formed because the plant does not 

 immediately lose its vital activity, after the absorption of oxygen. 



A 300-c.c. (lO-oz.)Ha8k, containing 100 c.c. of must, after the air in it 

 had been expelled by boiling, was opened and immediately re-closed, on 

 August 15th, 1873. A fungoid growth — a unique one, of greenish-grey 

 colour — developed from spontaneous impregnation, and decolorized the 

 liquid, which originally was of a yellowish- brown. Some large crystals, 

 sparkling like diamonds, of neutral tartrate of lime, were precipitated. 

 About a year afterwards, long after the death of the plant, we examined 



