December 23, 1898.] 



SCIENCE, 



893 



and armies. Neither is lie a cultivator of 

 natural science. Whatever the word may 

 have meant in the past, it has, in common 

 speech, come to mean a believer in that 

 philosophy of evolution which, according to 

 such evolutionists as Huxley, is ' prema- 

 ture.' Since this is so, and since the growth 

 of language is beyond individual control, 

 would it not be well for them to stand where 

 Huxley stands, and ' have nothing to say to 

 any philosophy of evolution,' to stop calling 

 themselves ' Evolutionists,' and to be content 

 with the good old name of ' JSTaturalist ?' 



To the pious evolutionist, who asks what 

 will become of the fixed order of nature if 

 we are not convinced that everything is de- 

 terminate, we answer that, while this sort 

 of reasoning is not new, it has a strange 

 sound in the mouth of a student of science- 

 The order of nature has outlasted many 

 systems of philosophy, and it may survive 

 others. AVe have found our astronomy and 

 our geology and our law of the mutability 

 of species, and none of the dreadful things 

 predicted by ' philosophers ' have come 

 about. There may still be more things in 

 heaven and earth than are dreamed of in 

 ' philosophy.' 



History warns us that, as the price of 

 progress in science, all the idols of the 

 theater, and all other idols, " must be ab- 

 jured and renounced with firm and solemn 

 resolution, and the understanding must be 

 completely freed and cleared of them, so 

 the access to the kingdom of man, which 

 is founded on the sciences, may resemble 

 that to the kingdom of heaven, where no 

 admission is conceded except to children." 



If the world thinks hard names are the 

 just due of them who assert their living 

 wish to know, while humbly confessing 

 ignorance, the biologist must bear up as 

 well as he can if he is called a ' scientific 

 Rip Van Winkle,' or an ' agnostic,' or even 

 * a turbaned and malignant Turk.' 



If we seek admision to the temple of 



natural knowledge naked and not ashamed, 

 like little children, hard names cannot 

 hurt us, nor need they scare us. 



W- K. Bkooks. 

 Johns Hopkins University. 



FERMENTATION WITHOUT LIVING CELLS 

 AND SYNTHETIC PROTEIN. 



I TAKE pleasure in complying with the 

 request of the Editor to furnish the readers 

 of Science with a brief abstract of the 

 papers read at the late Vienna Congress 

 by Professor Buchner, of Tiibingen, and 

 Dr. Lillienfeld, of Vienna, on ' Fermen- 

 tation without Cells' and ' The Syn- 

 thesis of Albumenoids,' respectively. The 

 paper of Professor Buchner was presented 

 to the whole Congress on the occasion of 

 the first general meeting, July 28, 1898. 

 The paper was illustrated with numerous 

 experiments showing the production of vig- 

 orous fermentation within the time occupied 

 by reading the paper, secured by ferments 

 entirely free of yeast cells. The active 

 principle of the yeast cells is obtained bj^ 

 grinding the yeast with quartz sand, for the 

 purpose of disrupting the cells, and subse- 

 quently submittiug the moist mass to a high 

 pressure, viz : 500 atmospheres. Nearly all 

 the yeast cells are disrupted by this pro- 

 cess, and a microscopic examination of the 

 residue discloses the empty cells froin which 

 all liquid contents have been removed. A 

 more complete evacuation of the contents 

 of the cells is secured by breaking up and 

 moistening the press cake and repeating 

 the grinding and pressure. About half a 

 liter of liquid is obtained from a kilogram 

 of yeast. The liquid contents of the cells, 

 as they come from the press, are filtered 

 through fine paper, in order to remove any 

 danger of whole yeast cells being found in 

 the extract. 



The resultant liquor is clear or slightly 

 opalescent, has a yellowish color and the 

 pleasant odor of yeast. It contains con- 



