202 Report oF DEPARTMENT OF BACTERIOLOGY OF THE 
regret that Bourquelot gives practically no details as to his 
methods in these experiments, since it is evident from his 
statements that the changes occupied considerable lengths of 
time; and one would wish full assurance of the absence of 
bacterial growth. 
In some of his other work with enzym solutions he relied 
‘upon chloroform, in some on * thymol water,” both of which, © 
we have learned, must be used with painstaking, if bacterial 
growths are to be suppressed with certainty. In some cases 
he has depended upon frequently raising the temperature of 
the solutions to 50° C. to destroy bacteria. 
In spite of these criticisms, however, it seems to us that the 
conclusions of Bourquelot and Herissey must be accepted, viz., 
that there is present in barley malt an enzym, their pectinase, 
which hydrolyzes pectine, and also an enzym, presumably the 
same, which hydrolyzes the pectic coagulum. Since this latter 
is regarded by most chemists, including Green, as calcium pec- 
tate and the same as the middle lamella in composition, the 
name .pectinase becomes applicable to the middle. lamella- 
dissolving enzym of barley malt. 
The strongest objection to this dictum is that there may be 
insufficient ground for their conclusion that the action upon 
the pectine and the coagulum is due to one and the same 
enzym. These are closely related compounds and it seems to 
us their conclusion must be accepted until the contrary is 
proved. There is nothing in their publication to indicate 
whether or not they regarded their “ pectinase ” as capable of 
causing the solution of the hemicelluloses also. Since, however, 
they do not state to the contrary and later name only three 
enzyms as occurring in barley malt'® (diastase, trehelase and 
pectinase), we are led to infer that they so regarded it, and 
therefore, as Green says, they did not clearly define their * pec- 
tinase”’ as different from Brown and Morris’ cytolytic enzym, 
for which Griiss later proposed the name ‘* cytase.” 

18 Bourquelot, Em. Sur V’hydrolyse des polysaccharides par les ferments 
soluble. Jour. Pharm. et Chem, 16: 581, 1902. 
