AND COMPOSITION OF MISO. 
9 
the above table that it increases in the course of the fermenta¬ 
tion to 40%. The whole quantity of albuminoids which thus 
disappears, is really broken up into simpler compounds of the 
character of amides, organic ammoniacal and xanthin bodies; 
very minute proportions of them seem to be converted into 
peptons, and a slight quantity of the nitrogenous bodies is 
decomposed so far as to yield votatile ammoniacal substances, 
which existed in the dry matter of the 4th sample only to the 
amount of 0.25% nitrogen. 
b) As to the ether extract (crude fat), we notice a gradual 
increase, which does not, of course, consist of fat, but is merely 
the result of the formation of free lactic, butyric, and other 
organic acids and other not well known substances which dissolve 
along with the fat in the ether, a fact already frequently observed 
to take place in all kinds of fermenting matters. 
c) The carbohydrates are likewise very materially affected by 
the fermentation. The invertase of the koji continues to act, 
after mixing, upon the starch not only of the barley but also upon 
that of the soy beans, in spite of the presence of a considerable 
proportion of sodium chloride' 1 ; the gelatinized starch and the 
dextrin undergo saccharification continually, only the trifling 
amount of 7.33% is finally left of them in the miso, whereas the 
barley koji and beans contain 73.87 resp. 29.09%. The glucose 
formed from them seems, like the albuminoids, to serve for the 
nutrition of the fungus, the majority of it is used up in the res¬ 
piration of the living cells, as carbon dioxide copiously escapes 
during the fermentation, causing the dough to swell up, especially 
in the first months after mixing the raw materials. At the same 
time a not inconsiderable quantity of alcohol is generated which 
fact is not surprising, since the same fungus is employed for the 
saccharification and production of alcohol in the manufacture of 
saké (rice wine) and shochiu (alcohol), though in the analyses of 
miso hitherto published alcohol is not quoted as a regular con¬ 
stituent. A determination of it was only made in the 3rd sample, 
* See No 5, p. 32 of the Bulletins of this College. 
