234 The Fermentation of Cacao 
as the reduction of sugar. It must be re- 
membered that many germinating seeds possess 
enzymes, whose actions are to reduce sub- 
stances to a more assimilable condition for the 
nourishment of the young plant. The action 
of these can probably be excluded in ferment- 
ing cacao, and the enzymes present in the 
interior of the beans have diffused in from the 
exterior fermenting matter. 
It is the penetration of exterior enzymes 
and the general diffusion of the products of 
fermentation which bring about the changes 
in the interior of the bean. Now there are 
water, sugars, salts, alcohol, acetic acid, tartaric 
acid, enzymes, carbon dioxide and other diffusi- 
ble and soluble substances, passing in and out 
of the skin of the bean, which has become a 
diffusion membrane under fermentation. 
From this, some of the changes which occur 
are obvious and can at once be demonstrated by 
analysis, other changes are brought about by 
the temperature reached by the fermenting mass. 
Physical Changes which are brought about in 
the Beans by Fermentation. 
If beans which have been fermented and 
dried are compared with uncured beans many 
differences are apparent: the former appear 
more rounded and plumped up and of a dark 
brown colour; this is due to the formation 
within the kernel of carbonic acid and volatile 
substances such as alcohol, which tend to 
disintegrate the various portions of the bean 
