194 REporRtT OF DEPARTMENT OF BACTERIOLOGY OF THE 
believes that further study will reveal other such organisms. 
He considers that in the so-called * cellulose-fermentation,” 
earlier writers were dealing chiefly or wholly with the more 
easily hydrolvzable celluloses and pectic compounds. 
CYTOLYTIC ACTION OF CERTAIN FUNGI. 
Although it has long been known that fungi penetrate cell 
walls, de Bary (1886) first separated a cytolytic enzym from 
the living fungus and studied its characters and action. He 
thus proved that Peziza sclerotiorum (NSclerotina libertiana) 
secretes a soluble ferment which causes some swelling of the 
walls of vegetables invaded by it, followed by a solution of 
the middle lamella and consequent isolation of the cells. He 
observed a partial solution of the inner lamellae, and the re- 
sidual portion gave a beautiful cellulose reaction with chlor- 
zinc-iodide. se 
Ward two years later (1888) did his painstaking work on 
the lily Botrytis. Here he found an enzym which causes a 
swelling and laminations of the inner and solution of the mid- 
dle lamella of the cell walls of the host plant. He considered it 
“extremely probable this ferment is of the same nature as the 
one extracted by de Bary.” Ward also observed the extension 
of cytolytic enzym drops from the tips of the Botrytis hyphae, 
which he considered to be associated with the hyphal growth. 
Arthur (1897: 499) records similar lateral exudations upon 
the young hyphae of Rhizopus, which he believes to be asso- 
ciated with the local secretion of cytohydrolytic enzym., 
Laurent (1899) in subsequent studies upon the Sclerotinia 
enzym found it to be destroyed by heating to 54° C. when in 
solution, whereas it required 62° C. to destroy the middle la- 
mella dissolving enzym of Bacillus coli communis. He con- 
cludes from this that these enzyms must be different. His 
argument is less convincing from the fact that his two enzyms 
were secured from cultures made on different vegetable media, 
viz., artichoke in one case and potato in the other. There may 
have been by-products from the Sclerotinia culture which low- 
ered its resistance. The fact was referred to, earlier in this 
paper, that Green (1901 :448) and others have recorded much 
