894 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 208. 



siderable quaatities of carbon dioxid and 

 some coagulable albumen. That the pre- 

 pared juice contains enzymes is easily 

 shown by the hjdrogen peroxid test. Hy- 

 drocyanic acid has the property of forming 

 a very unstable compound with these en- 

 zymes whereby the action of hydrogen 

 peroxyd is prevented, and scarcely any 

 oxygen is given off from such a mixture 

 until the acid has been partly or entirely 

 removed by a current of air. Of the enzymes 

 present invertin has been detected, and it is 

 probable that another ferment capable of 

 hydrolj'zing maltose and glycogen is present. 



Most interesting is the deportment of the 

 yeast juice towards sugars. Fermentation 

 is set up much quicker than by yeast and 

 proceeds much faster. Quite a number of 

 sugar solutions treated with the ferment at 

 the beginning of the paper were in rapid 

 action before the close. The evolved gas is 

 almost pure cai-bon dioxid. The reaction 

 is made much quicker if a small amount of 

 sugar is dissolved in large volume of the 

 yeast liquor. The vitality of the ferments 

 continues for two or three days, after which 

 time their activity is rapidly diminished. 

 When carefully dried at a low temperature 

 the vitality of the ferments is not destroyed 

 and it is probable that in a desiccated state 

 the active properties of the mixture may 

 be kept indefinitely without loss. 



It follows, as a result of these investiga- 

 tions, that living cells are not necessary 

 to fermentation, and thus another of the 

 fetiches of the old chemistry is destroyed. 

 Fermentation can no longer be regarded as 

 a physiological act produced by living or- 

 ganisms. It is simply due to the chemical 

 power of an amylolyte acting in a manner 

 entirely similar to the ordinary digestive 

 ferments. It has not yet been possible to 

 Isolate the fermentative enzyme, partly be- 

 cause of its instability, but chiefly because 

 of the presence of other enzymes, such as 

 invertin and the oxydases, which deport 



themselves analytically in the same manner* 

 as the fermenting bodies. 



In regard to the practical uses which 

 may be made of this discovery little can be 

 said. By reason of the fact that the fer- 

 mentative organisms can be preserved in a 

 dry state, it ought to be possible to secure 

 a more general distribution of those par- 

 ticular yeasts which give the highly-prized 

 flavors to beers and even to wines. If this 

 be the case the flavors which are produced 

 in the great breweries of the Old "World 

 might be produced under proper conditions 

 in the breweries in other countries. It 

 would be wise, however, to postpone any 

 discussion of the practical applications of 

 the discovery of fermentation without liv- 

 ing cells until the matter has been more 

 thoroughly worked out from the purely 

 scientific point of view. 



The paper of Dr. Lilienfeld, as has al- 

 ready been intimated, refered to the synthe- 

 sis of a nitrogenous body having the prop- 

 erties of a peptone or even of an albuminoid 

 or proteoid. The synthesis of such a pep- 

 tone or peptonoid marks a distinct step for- 

 ward in synthetical work in the field which 

 has alreadj' been partly developed by Gri- 

 maux, Pickering, Williamson and others. 



We can only now speak, however, of its 

 centesimal composition. The state of its 

 molecular condensation and atom position 

 can only be determined by securing large 

 quantities of the product and submitting 

 it to chemical and digestive studies. It is 

 probable that, as in the case of sugars, the 

 artificial peptone will lack the vital ele- 

 ment. In other words, while the chemist 

 has succeeded in building molecules which 

 resemble, in every outward respect, those 

 built up by Nature, they are uniformly 

 dead, without cell functions or cell activity. 

 The details of this important scientific 

 work must be awaited before a final judg- 

 ment in regard to its far-reaching impor- 

 tance can be formulated. 



