po 
2 
Cm 
Gerard gives proof that penicillium can liberate butyric acid from 
monobutyrine, and evidence that this it due to its power of forming a 
lipase or fat-splitting enzyme. 
Lesage’ gives striking instances of the resistance to external in- 
fluences shown by the spores on germination. Not only will they 
germinate and live for some time in water, and under almost anaerobic 
conditions, but he found them germinating in 26°5 per cent. solutions 
of common salt ; 30 per cent. solutions were too much for them, 
however. He states also that the vapour of cedar-oil, iodoform, 
napthalin, camphor, and patchouli do not prevent germination ; 
though that of clove-oil, ether, alcohol, chloroform, and acetic acid 
_ prevent it. ‘[’he maximum for alcohol was somewhere between 4:2 
and 6:2 per cent. In acetic acid they germinated in twenty-four days 
in solutions of 1 : 256, but failed to do so in solutions of 1 : 64, whereas 
in HCl. they germinated in two days in 1 : 4 solutions: 
As regards temperatures, it is well known how resistant the spores 
are ; a striking instance of the hardships the mycelium can undergo 1s 
given by Woronin.® He found penicillium vegetating on the melting 
snow, where the temperature at night fell below o° C. 
Bourquelot? found Invertase, Maltase, Trehalase, Emulsin, | nulase, 
Diastase, and Trypsin in the allied aspergillus, and pointed out how 
suggestive this is in explaining the ubiquity of this mould. Probably 
penicillium is equally rich in capacity for enzyme-production. 
Miyoshi’ showed that penicillium can bore through cellulose mem- 
branes, and no doubt similar chemotactic phenomena are concerned in 
the piercing of wood-elements by the hyphe. 
It certainly looks as if penicillium may be a much more active 
organism in initiating and carrying on the destruction of wood than 
has hitherto been supposed, and that it is not merely a hanger-on or 
follower of more powerful wood-destroying fungi. It is also, doubt- 
less, very independent of antiseptics. 
* Reprinted from Abstract of papers read at the British Association Meeting, 1898. 
* Bull. de la Soc. Bot. de Fr., xlii., 1895, 1 
* Comp. Rend., 1890, cxi., p. 655. 
* Bot- Centr., xxxvii., 1889, ps 201. 
* Bull. de la Soc. Mycol. de fr, xili., 1897, p. 182. 
° Ann. des Sc., Nat., Ser. 8, T. I, 1895, p. 309. 
° Arb. d. St. Petersb. Naturf. Ver., B. xx., p. 31. 
7 Bull. Soc. Mycol., 1893, ps 231: 
* Bott. Zett., 1894, H. 1. 
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