of Edinburgh, Session 1885 - 86 . 
529 
can be revivified by an aqueous solution containing 0*25 gram, of 
potassium nitrate and 0*2 gram, of sodium phosphate in 2000 c.c. of 
water. In fact, the Torula appears to decompose a much larger 
quantity of sugar (in wort) into alcohol in a given time after the 
above salts have been added to 2 titres of wort than when the wort 
is not so treated. It appears that the Torula lives its life-history to 
a certain extent by extracting the potash and phosphoric acid from 
the compounds containing them, which come into the wort from 
the barley and hops. Mitscherlich long ago showed that the ash of 
yeast gave no less than 53 to 59 per cent, of phosphoric acid, 
and from 28 to 39 per cent, of potash. Hence it may be that a 
larger amount of alcohol would be produced in beers by the addition 
of small quantities of the above substances to the wort. 
From the above investigations the following conclusions are to be 
drawn : — 
1. That a certain solution of salicylic acid has no action upon the 
living Torula, but dissolves it when dead ; thus showing that some 
chemical change (post-mortem) has taken place in the cellulose of 
the cell-wall. 
2. That the solution of salicylic acid destroys “ disease ferments,” 
by acting upon the cell-walls ; showing that their cellulose most 
probably differs from the cellulose of the Torula eerevisice. 
3. That the solution of salicylic acid prevents the hydrating 
action of the various soluble zymases. 
4. A solution of sodium phosphate and potassium nitrate 
revivifies exhausted yeast, and e^en increases the yield of alcohol 
in saccharine solutions. 
5. Salicylic acid acts as an antiseptic agent of great value, 
because it acts directly upon the “ disease ferments ” in beers, and 
not upon the true alcoholic ferment. 
6. Salicylic acid is not a poison in quantities far exceeding the 
amount in the solution given in this paper. This acid is largely 
used in France and Germany as a medicine. 
For those interested in the application of this acid in medicine, I 
refer them to the following excellent memoirs : — 
(a) Wagner’s “ Le traitement de la diphterie des maladies de 
l’estomac et des intestins,” Moniteur Scientifique , 1885, p. 354 ; 
also Journal fur praktische Chemie , xi. pp. 57 and 211. 
2 N 
VOL. XIII. 
