The Last Word 281 
possesses an intense odour of cacao, and the 
flavour was clearly perceptible in a dilution of 
1 in 50 million parts of dilute syrup. The 
flavour is most nearly akin to that of coriander 
oil. Itis pointed out that in the method of 
preparing cacao beans in the Tropics by fermen- 
tation and slow drying, a number of possible 
ethereal substances are added naturally to the 
crude oil. To explain this, a description is 
given of the different fermentation changes, 
as investigated by one of the authors in the 
West Indies. 
The first runnings from the fermenting box 
contain alcohol, invert sugar and tartaric acid. 
Part of this liquor penetrates into the beans, 
but the shell membrane is fine enough to pre- 
vent the micro-organisms, which lead to the 
production of these substances, from percolat- 
ing to the kernels. 
During the first twenty-four hours of fermen- 
tation the temperature rises to 35° or 40° C., 
varying with the exact position of the box. 
Within forty-eight hours it rises to 40° to 45°C, 
and if the fermentation is continued for five 
or six days, the temperature will be found to 
rise to a maximum of 45° to 50° C. Higher 
temperatures are occasionally noted when the 
fermentation is continued for an exceptionally 
long period, for instance, ten to eleven days, as 
in Trinidad. In this case, however, the tem- 
perature will fall towards the close. 
The bi-chemical nature of the different 
changes is explained as follows :— 
