51 



breathe anil is provide 1 witli sufficient tool, but it is never converte;! into what 

 is usually termed an alcoholic ferment. At the same time if the air he cxcluiled 

 he finds that the plant will go on growing for a longer or shorter time after the 

 exclusion of the oxygen, but that its life is then c.vvried on under abnormal con- 

 ditions, which is evidenced by a change in the form of the mycelial fibres, and 

 by the fact that a certain amount of alcohol is produced. The mycelium becomes 

 swollen and contorted, and shows a tendency to break up into small cells attached 

 end to end, and it is only in this state that the plant is capable of fonuing al- 

 cohol, liut it docs this without the presence of a single cell of the common yeast. 

 If the swollen mycelium-cells be again alli>we 1 to grow under the usuil conditions, 

 that is with plenty of food and air, they reproduce the normal form of the plant 

 from -which the spores were originally taken. It m.ay in fact be taken that 

 while the fungus is healthy, growing under normil conditions, it consumes sugar, 

 converting it into water and carbonic acid without producing any alcohol whatever, 

 but that as soon as it no longer meets with the requisite quantity of free oxygen, 

 still remaining in presence of sugar, it falls ill, and in that diseased condition it 

 lives for a longer or a shorter time, producing alcohol as a pathological product. 

 All fungi are not so easily killed, some may jiroduce a very large quantity of 

 alcohol before they die, and may even go on reproducing fresh cells. The ilucor 

 nuicedo, for instance, ac.-ording to Fitz is killed when the liipiid contains more 

 tlian 1 % of alcohol, whilst the Mucor racemosus is more tenacious of life, and is not 

 killed until the liquid contains from 2 to 4i per cent, according to ditTerent observers.'' 

 'J'here may be all variations in the case of different fungi, and although no 

 uise is at present known of one of the common air fungi yielding a greater per- 

 centage of alcohol than that given by the Mucor racemosus, there is no inherent 

 improb.ability in the supposition that some fungi may yield nuich more. In fact 

 the chemical dilTerenee between what are usually termed ferments and the ordinary 

 fungi, seems to be their power of living out of contact with free oxygen, deriving 

 that whicli they require from sugar, and thus causing it to split up into various 

 other products in the manner shown by some such equations as the following:— 



r. cn.jj.. = 2C,n„o -;- 2C0, 



Dextrose Alculiol 



2^ 4C'fI,A -i- -"^H^O = C'1I,0, : GC'II,0, •: 2C(\ 1 (Monoyorl 



1 'exlioäe Succinic (Ilvceriii 



acid 



Mr. Kurschelt's supposition that the mycelium of the knji fiuigus itself 

 l)rc;iks up and goes on living as a fenujnt would be remarkable, therefore, only 

 in the fiict tliat the cells were able to live in a li<[uid containing as mucl» as fif- 

 teen per cent, of alcohol, a very much higher jiercentagc tlian tlie common U-er 

 yeast can exist in; But the question naturally arises whetlier the conditions 

 under wliich the fermentation is carried on are such as would permit a fungus 



• 4) per cent. (Brcfeld) 8.8 to 8.4 pr-r cent. (Pasteur) 2.8 to 2.7 per cent. (Fitn.) 



