344 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
metrical configuration of the ferment coincides with that of 
the compound which it attacks. The most important chem¬ 
ical agents of the living cell are the optically active ones of 
the albuminoids, and these possess, consequently, an asym¬ 
metrically constructed molecule. Since the simple albumi¬ 
noids result from the sugars, the fact is given in proof of the 
same geometrical structure for these two classes of bodies. 
On this reasoning it has been claimed that, when sugar comes 
into contact with the albumen of the yeast cells, fermentation 
takes place only if the geometrical form of the sugar molecule 
does not differ too widely from that of the yeast substance. 
In some recent experiments, Fischer found that the fer¬ 
ments invertin and emulsin attack only the glucosides of grape 
sugar, whilst they leave those of other sugars — likewise 
starch, salicin, phlorizin, and other synthetical phenol-glu- 
cosides — unacted on. 
However, the a-methyl glucoside is decomposed by inver¬ 
tin and not by emulsin; but with the methyl-glucoside the 
reverse occurs. These facts are given to show that a different 
molecule structure alters the condition. 
The influence of the bacilli on chemical changes in the 
body is recognized. That these changes do occur is evident. 
Many experiments on plant tissues show this. The transfor¬ 
mation of starch into sugar by the Bacillus anthracis has been 
shown lately by cultivating the bacillus on a potato. After a 
short time, the surface of the potato gave, not the blue color 
of starch with iodine, but the red color of dextrin. Portions 
of the potato were then placed in sterilized water, and, after 
some days, on testing the liquid, it reduced Fehling’s solution. 
The explanation of these changes is supposed to rest on the 
configuration of the molecule. 
From the survey of the chart, on which are summarized 
the synthesis and work on the sugars, the attention of the least 
interested observer will be called to this fact,— that a vast 
amount of work has been accomplished in this field, and the 
harmony in these groups between facts and theories is signi¬ 
ficant. That chemical compounds are solids and occupy space 
is not to be gainsaid, but there must be an adjustment between 
