SECRETION OF DIASTASE BY PENICILLIUM CAMEMBERTII 24I 
in acid alcohol, could be largely overcome if a concentration of alcohol 
stronger than 73 percent were used as the precipitating agent. The 
influence of time on diastatic action was therefore determined by 
precipitating the starch and dextrins in 86 percent, in 73 percent, and 
in 60 percent acid alcohol. As was expected, the stronger the alcohol 
the greater was the precipitate. The close parallelism, however, 
between the curve for the precipitates in 86 percent alcohol and the 
WW 
F GURE n 
Fig. 
curve for the precipitates in 73 percent alcohol seemed to justify the 
use of the weaker strength. It is advantageous to use 73 percent 
alcohol (70 cc. of 95 percent alcohol + i cc. of HCl + 20 cc. of the 
solution) because the smaller quantity of liquid facilitates filtration 
and other mechanical operations incident to the determination. 
In all the determinations the alcohol was acidified with HCl in 
order to facilitate the flocculation of the starch and to prevent the 
precipitation of the salts present. It was found by experiment that 
the concentration of the HCl used is more or less a matter of indiffer- 
ence. The amount of precipitate at various stages of digestion in 
