Dr. Axel Preyer — aa 
Chittenden at first expressed the opinion that 
the soluble or liquid matters penetrate through 
the leathery skin in the seeds, and produce the 
change in taste and colour. He proves the 
possibility of this theory by a trial, in which 
the cotyledons of a cacao bean were coloured 
red after being immersed in a fuchsin solution 
for a few hours, The leathery skin is also 
permeable, at least by some substance. I re- 
peated this trial in the following manner. On 
the one side I used fresh seeds, on the other, 
seeds fully intact but fermented for several 
days ; both were put into an alcoholic fuchsin 
solution, and after twenty-four hours cross-sec-: 
tions were examined. The fresh beans showed 
(even after forty-eight hours) no trace of a red 
colouring of the germ leaves ;. the fuchsin solu- 
tion had only percolated through the pulp, and 
no further. On the other hand, the fermented. 
seeds had intensely red-brownish coloured 
cotyledons after one still (more after two) day’s 
immersion, whilst other fermented seeds not 
treated with fuchsin were of a pale brownish 
colour inside; therefore the fuchsin colouring 
matter had penetrated through the hitherto 
impermeable leathery skin. During the micro- 
scopical examination of the coloured beans it 
was found that through the fermentation a 
loosening of the hard cells takes place, so that 
the hitherto impenetrable layer is now loosened,-: 
exposing the middle fibrous layer and, more. 
especially, allowing the inner cells to be acted. 
