December 12, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



933 



the distillate contained alcohol. The 

 quantity was not large, but still measur- 

 able; from 10 kilos, of leaves he obtained 

 10 grams of alcohol. 



Maze claims to have found alcohol under 

 normal conditions in the stems and leaves 

 of the vine. 



Maze finds further that the weight of a 

 seedling of maize approximates at any 

 moment during the early stages of germina- 

 tion to half that lost by the reserve store in 

 the endosperm. 



From his experiments, and those of the 

 other authors alluded to, he concludes that 

 alcohol is formed in the living cells of seeds 

 at the expense of grape sugar by virtue of 

 a normal diastasic process, which makes 

 tiiem approach yeast cells more closely 

 tiian has been suggested by any of the ex- 

 periments hitherto published. We may in- 

 quire further how far the evidence points 

 to the probability that the molecule of sugar 

 is split up in that way into alcohol and 

 carbon dioxide, and that the alcohol is the 

 nutritive part of the sugar molecule. Cer- 

 tainly Maze's experiments on the sub- 

 merged seeds with the plumule exposed 

 above the water are not inconsistent with 

 that view. Duclaux has spoken more de- 

 finitely still on this point, and has said 

 that the alcohol formed becomes a true re- 

 serve material to be used for nutriment. 



We have, hoM'ever, further evidence that 

 to some plants, at all events, alcohol is a 

 food. Laborde has published some re- 

 searches conducted upon a fungus, Euro- 

 tiopsis Gayoni, which point unmistakably to 

 this conclusion. He cultivated it in a solu- 

 tion containing only the mineral constitu- 

 ents of Rawlin's fluid and a certain per- 

 centage of alcohol, usually from four to 

 five per cent. The plant grew well, 

 forming little circular patches of myce- 

 lium, which enlarged radially as the growth 

 progressed. The mycelium became very 

 dense in the center of the patches, and the 



fungus evidently thrived well. As it grew 

 the alcohol slowly disappeared, the rate 

 being about equal to that of sugar in a 

 similar culture in which this substance re- 

 placed the alcohol. The myeeliiun in some 

 experiments was cultivated quite from the 

 spores. Eurotiopsis is a fungus which has 

 the power of setting up alcoholic fomenta- 

 tion in saccharine solutions. When culti- 

 vated in these alcohol is accordingly pro- 

 duced, and subsequently used, but the 

 growth of the mold is not so easy under 

 these conditions as when the alcohol is sup- 

 plied to it at the outset. 



Duclaux has shown that in the case of 

 another fungus, the well-known Aspergillus 

 niger, though alcohol kills it while it is in 

 course of germination from the spore, it 

 can utilize for nutrition 6.8 per cent, when 

 it becomes adult, continuing to grow, and 

 putting out aerial hypha3. Eurotiopsis is 

 more pronounced in its liking for alcohol, 

 for it thrives in a mixture containing ten 

 per cent. ; even if submerged entirely it 

 continues to grow and flourish in an eight 

 per cent, solution. 



The peculiarity relates only to ethyl 

 alcohol; methyl alcohol will serve as a nu- 

 tritive medium for only a little time, suffi- 

 cient only for the commencing develop- 

 ment of the spores into a mycelium and 

 disappearing very slowly from the culture 

 fluid. The higher alcohols, propyl, butyl 

 and amyl, not only give no nourishment, 

 but are poisonous to spores. A very small 

 trace of any of them can be used by the 

 adult mold. 



Laborde claims to have established as 

 the result of his investigations that Euro- 

 tiopsis normally makes alcohol from the 

 sugar to nourish itself with it, just as 

 yeast makes invert sugar from cane sugar 

 because it is the nutritive material it likes 

 best. The enzyme zymase is present in the 

 fungus and plays the part of an alimentary 

 enzyme. Its consumption lasts twice as 



