ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
221 
Liebscher’calls attention to the fact that according to Cohn the Koji 
fungus does not, as Ahlborg states, belong to the genus Eurotium , but is 
to be regarded as Aspergillus Oryzae, and that the fungus possesses the 
power of saccharizing starch, without, however, forming a ferment. The 
author seems to think that the Koji fungus acts simply as a preparative 
on the malt, fermentation being set up by wild yeasts, which are deposited 
in the mash from the air. 
Moreover, the amount of alcohol in Sake is usually over-estimated. 
The strongest samples of Sake made in Sydney in 1879 showed from 15 
to 11 ’33 per cent, of alcohol. It is, however, quite possible that 18 per 
cent, was obtained in Japan, for there the fermentation lasts for five to 
six weeks. 
Magerstein seems to think that if Koji results in economy of malt, 
its addition to potato-brandy mash may not necessarily have a similar 
effect. 
Saccharomyces Jorgensenii.* — Herr A. Lasche isolated from a 
“ temperance ” beer which had become cloudy a small yeast of 2 • 5-5 * 5 /x 
diameter. By cultivation on gypsum blocks, spores were formed be- 
tween 8° to 28° C. These spores were 1 to 2*5^ in diameter, 2 or 3, 
rarely 4, being found in one cell. At the optimum temperature, 25°, 
the first evidences of growth were noticeable in 24 hours. Wort-gelatin 
was slowly, and pepton-gelatin only partially liquefied. In old wort- 
gelatin cultivations many cells formed spores, but these were not highly 
refractive, contained vacuoles, and thus resembled the spores of cultivated 
yeasts. They only germinated by budding. 
Above 30° this yeast dies very quickly. No scum was formed. 
S. Joergensenii , as this new kind of yeast is called, ferments dextrose 
and saccharose, but not maltose. In this it resembles S. Ludwigii , from 
which it is distinguished by the form of the cells, the manner of spore- 
formation and spore-germination, and by the absence of scum. 
New Torula and Saccharomyces. | — Herr C. Gronland describes 
the following new yeast-forms found in the Carlsberg Laboratory : — 
Torula Novae Carlsbergiae , in the brewery. The cells, of very unequal 
length, form a pellicle on the surface of the nutrient fluid, and ferment 
maltose, grape-sugar, and cane-sugar. Saccharomyces Ilicis and S. 
Aquifolii were both found on the berries of the holly ; the former usually 
forms an under-, the latter an upper-ferment. 
Hansen’s Criticism of the Oidium and Yeast Forms described by 
Ludwig and Brefeld.J — In the mucus flux of oaks Ludwig found an 
Oidium form and a new species of Endomyces , E. Magnusii, and he 
inferred that they were developmentally associated; and yet at the same 
time he seemed inclined to hold similar views about a Saccharomyces 
discovered in the same material. About the same date Hansen ex- 
amined a similar material, and found therein an Oidium form which 
accurately corresponded to Ludwig's Endomyces Magnusii , and was also 
found to set up alcoholic fermentation in dextrose-yeast water solutions. 
* Zeitschr. f. d. ges. Brauwesen, 1892, p. 113. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., xii. (1892) p. 558. 
t Vidensk. Meddel. Kjobenhavn, 1892. See Bot. Centralbl., lii. (1892) p. 119. 
X Bot. Ztg., 1. (1892) pp. 312-8. Cf. this Journal, 1887, p. 285 ; and 1889, p. 795. 
