64 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
enzymes otherwise present were capable of producing the 
texture of Camembert cheese in four cheeses of a series, the 
remainder of which were readily ripened normally. 
BACTERIOLOGY. 
The universal presence of bacteria in all dairy products 
suggests, of course, that they may play an important part in 
the ripening of our cheese. In the various scientific accounts 
of Camembert cheese bacteria are always mentioned, and both 
Epstein and Roger attributed to their action a considerable part 
of the ripening and flavor production. Our own preliminary 
studies of the market cheeses always showed the presence of 
bacteria in great number and in considerable variety. It was 
manifest that most of these were purely incidental organisms 
not contributing at all to the ripening. In the study of these 
bacteria the following questions have been kept in mind. 
Which kinds of bacteria are always found and which are only 
occasionally present? Which kinds of bacteria are present in 
fresh cheese? Which kinds of bacteria grow during the ripen- 
ing? Do any of these bacteria produce the Camembert flavor? 
Do the bacteria contribute to the chemical changes that occur 
during the ripening? Part of these questions we have already 
answered, but part of them require further study. 
We first made a bacteriological study of a considerable num- 
ber of ripened cheeses, isolating all species of bacteria that could 
be found. Except that lactic bacteria were always found, this 
work gave no significant results. We were somewhat surprised 
to find that the group of bacteria that digest proteids (¢.e. lique- 
fliers) were commonly entirely absent. We had anticipated 
finding them in large numbers, inasmuch as the cheese is so 
evidently a digested product. This absence in large numbers 
suggested that the digestive agent must be looked for elsewhere 
than in bacterial action. 
Our search for a flavor-producing bacterium has thus far 
been equally unsuccessful. Epstein states that by inoculating 
into a casein solution one of the bacteria he isolated from 
Camembert cheese, he obtained a typical flavor. We have been 
unable to find such a bacterium. We have carefully studied the 
action upon milk of the organisms isolated from cheeses in the 
hope of finding a flavor-producing bacterium, but have thus far 

