Dr. Oscar Loew 57 
baking bread. The cacao butter is not re- 
moved in Porto Rico, and therefore the 
chocolate manufactured there has an exquisitely 
fine aroma.* 
SuMMAaRY. 
The fermentation process itself is due in the 
first place to yeast cells, which multiply rapidly 
in the saccharine juice oozing from the pulped 
cacao, and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. 
In the second place bacteria patticipate, which 
develop rapidly after a certain time, and change 
the alcohol formed by the yeast by oxidation, 
either wholly or partly, into acetic acid. These 
processes cause a rise of temperature, and the 
death of the cells of the seed and slime tissue, 
whereby the juice of the slime tissue can 
separate and, more or less altered, collect at 
the bottom of the receptacles, together with 
the acetic acid produced. ~ 
The chief object of the fermentation is to 
kill and shrink the slime tissue or pulp attached 
to the testa of the seed, allowing the remnants 
either to be washed away, as is done in Ceylon, 
or dried upon the seed, forming an irregular 
brown film upon the testa. The advantage of 
thus changing the voluminous slime tissue lies 
in the increased facility of quickly drying the 
1 | think it will be generally agreed that the English 
term “chocolate” denotes an article for eating rather 
than drinking, and in that case not only is all the 
natural fat or butter left in the beans, but even extra 
butter is added at times, I believe.—H. H. S. 
