22 
RESEARCHES ON THE MANUFACTURE 
by subsequent processes, the finished miso remains rich in 
both, true albuminoids and soluble carbohydrates (glucose and 
dextrin), and the losses involved by the destruction are certainly 
fully counterbalanced on the one hand by the increased digesti¬ 
bility and on the other the dietetic properties, which must be 
ascribed to some of the products originating during the fer¬ 
mentation. Indeed, as to digestibility, the dissolution of the 
albuminoids, and saccharification of the carbohydrates, which 
both take place to so considerable an extent in the manufacture, 
are essentially the same processes, which would have to be 
performed by the digestive fluids in the alimentary canal ; 
hence it results that, if the raw materials of which the miso 
is prepared were directly eaten, they would certainly not be 
digested with that ease, and probably also not at that rate, 
which we are justified in ascribing to the finished miso. 
These considerations are, however, of less significance, as 
miso is never consumed in large quantities. More importance 
must be attached to certain dietetic properties, which are 
acquired by the fermentation. We are in a position to show 
in a paper, which will be issued ere long, that the decom¬ 
position of the albuminoids by the fungus is associated with 
the formation of certain nitrogenous substances of a character 
partly similar to and partly identical with that of the active 
constituents of beef extract , and we may add here that 
similar substances exist also in shoyu, a sauce prepared by a 
fermentation closely resembling that applied in the manufacture 
of miso. 
It is true that the nitrogenous substances of beef extract, and 
consequently also the so called “ extractive substances ” of miso 
and shoyu when eaten in the usual small quantities, are not 
capable of protecting from destruction any remarkable quantity 
of the albuminoids which are regularly decomposed in the body 
for the maintenance of life or the production of energy ; at 
least, researches by C. von Voit on the effect of beef extract 
and coffee have proved it to be so. This fact does, however, 
not involve that these substances may not act on the nerves in 
