CHAPTER XLV 

 BACTERIA IN THE SUGAR INDUSTRY 



The proportion of crystallizable sugar secured from 

 the juices of sugar-beets, sugar-cane, sorghum and other 

 plants used for the manufacture of cane-sugar, is often 

 reduced by the activities of certain microorganisms. 

 Sugar refiners realized many years ago that'' the gelat- 

 inous masses that appear in the juice are a hindrance 

 to its profitable utilization. They knew, also, that these 

 gelatinous masses increase in amount, and that they 

 may, in aggravated cases, convert the entire juice into 

 a gelatinous mucus. 



The true nature of this substance was not recognized, 

 however, until 1875, when the opinion was expressed 

 by Jubert that it is due to a "ferment," — that it is, in 

 other words, of bacterial origin. A few years later, it 

 was shown that the gelatinous substances consist of 

 swollen and gelatinized cell-walls of bacteria, and the 

 organism was nained Ascococcus mesenterioides, renamed 

 Leuconostoc mesenterioides, and, finally. Streptococcus 

 mesenterioides. 



Streptococcus mesenteroides. — This organism does not 



always enclose itself in a gelatinous sheath. On media 



like potato, meat-broth, gelatin and milk-gelatin, it is 



an ordinary spherical bacterium arranged in chains of 



cc (449) 



