202 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MARCH 
of boiled white of egg were found to be partially covered by the creep- 
ing Fuligo. On Saturday morning, November 1o, the hardened, 
coagulated egg albumen was completely covered and well-nigh digested. 
The yolk was but slightly affected by the plasmodium, even after 
exposure to the digestive action for two whole days. The butter was 
left untouched. 
The presence of several ferments is naturally inferred from the 
digestive action accomplished by the plasmodium. According to De 
Bary, diastase can be extracted from the plasmodium of A‘thalium 
(Fuligo).? | 
In his book on ferments Green? states: “One of the earliest known 
of these is the ferment which Krukenberg found to be procurable from 
the plasmodium of A‘thalium, one of the Myxomycetes. A glycerine 
extract of the plasmodium was found to have very marked proteolytic 
powers in the presence of lactic or hydrochloric acid. Krukenberg’s 
statement has been confirmed by Miss Greenwood, who has stated that 
the plasmodium of another member of the same group yielded to 0.4 per 
cent. hydrochloric acid an extract which showed marked solvent action 
on fibrin.” Negative results were obtained when I removed some of 
the partially digested fungus with plasmodium upon it, and treated 
the mass with glycerine, according to the directions given above. To 
the glycerine extract, which had a slightly yellowish color, a few drops 
of 35 per cent. hydrochloric acid was added, and a small frayed piece 
of raw beefsteak. After two days of trial the beefsteak was found 
unchanged, although left in the glycerine extract for that length of time. 
The plasmodium brought into the laboratory on Friday, November 
2, was still in a streaming condition on Saturday, November 10, when 
observation upon it ceased. The original fungus, with the exception 
of the more fibrous stipe, had in this time been reduced to a fibrous 
gelatinous mass, upon which the plasmodium still streamed, finding 
apparently enough remaining food to feed upon, although by this time 
the common mold had invaded it. This mold appeared for the first 
time on Wednesday, November 7, but was then brushed off to prevent 
fruiting. The plasmodium, while actively streaming and feeding, kept 
the substratum remarkably sweet and clean, and it was not until the 
original food substance had been destroyed as food that foreign 
organisms, such as the mold, had any chance for development. This 
?This statement is somewhat at variance with the observations of Lister, /oc. cit. 
3 The soluble ferments and fermentation 215. 1899. 

