1911. J Acetylmethylcarbinol and 2.3-Butylene Glycol. 499 



Summary of Results. 



1. B. laxtis ae-rogenes and B. cloacce, when grown in a peptone solution 

 containing either glucose, fructose, mannose, galactose, arabinose, isodulcite, 

 mannitol or adonitol, produce both acetylmethylcarbinol and 2.3-butylene 

 glycol. 



2. Glycerol, ethylene glycol and acetaldehyde, under similar conditions, 

 also give rise to 2.3-butylene glycol in presence of B. lactis aerogenes, but no 

 acetylmethylcarbinol is produced. In these three cases a carbon synthesis 

 is involved, analogous to that which occurs in the butyric fermentation of 

 glycerol and lactic acid. 



3. The fermentation of citric and malic acids, of dihydroxyacetone, and of 

 peptone water, gives rise to neither carbinol nor glycol. 



REFERENCES. 



1. Harden and Walpole, ' Roy. Soc. Proc., ! 1906, B, vol. 77, p. 399. 



2. Harden, 'Chem. Soc. Journ.,' 1901, p. 610. 



3. Grimbert, 'Compt. Rend.,' 1901, vol. 132, p. 706. 



4. Desmots, ' Compt. Rend.,' 1904, vol. 138, p. 581. 



5. Harden, 'Roy. Soc. Proc.,' 1906, B, vol. 77. 



6. Harden and Walpole, ' Roy. Soc. Proc.,' 1906, B, vol. 77, p. 399. 



7. Walpole, 'Roy. Soc. Proc.,' 1911, B, vol. 83, p. 272. 



8. Thompson, ' Roy. Soc. Proc.,' this vol., p. 500. 



9. Fitz, 'Ber.,' 1880, vol. 13, p. 130S. 



10. Buchner and Meisenheimer, 'Ber.,' 1908, vol. 41, p. 1410. 



11. Bang, 'Biochem. Zeitschr.,' 1907, vol. 2, p. 271. 



12. Harden and Walpole, 'Roy. Soc. Proc.,' 1906, B, vol. 77, p. 399. 



13. Harden, 'Chem. Soc. Journ.,' 1901, p. 610. 



14. Macnair, 'Chem. News,' 1887, vol. 55, p. 229. 



VOL. LXXXIV. — B. 



