FUNGI IN CHEESE RIPENING. . 95 
the fact that it had always appeared in cultures from market 
cheeses. Oidium had been excluded from many experiments 
in cheese making because it had been found to be associated 
with odors that seemed undesirable, as well as because of the 
conclusion of Epstein from his researches, that the presence of 
Oidium is uniformly deleterious. The inoculation of a half- 
ripened cheese lacking flavor entirely, with spores of Oidium 
produced the flavor distinctly in a single week, but since bac- 
terial action seemed always associated with this, further evidence 
was necessary. Roger and Epstein have attributed the ripen- 
ing of Camembert to the action of certain bacteria without 
distinguishing that the production of the texture of the cheese 
is accomplished by a different agent from the production of 
flavor. In their descriptions, ripened Camembert is always re- 
ferred to as slightly reddish in color, and the appearance of this 
color is regarded as an indication of the progress of ripening. 
In cheeses selected and forwarded by M. Roger this red color 
was very prominent and the red layer was found to consist of 
myriads of bacteria of a few species. Cultures from these 
cheeses showed that Oidium lactis was also present in abun- 
dance. Numerous tests have been made with the bacteria found 
associated with the various brands of Camembert cheese hitherto 
without producing the flavor in any case independently of the 
molds. ‘The comparative study of many cheeses from the mar- 
_ket and from our own cellars seem to show that cheeses may 
have the typical Camembert flavor without the development of 
any specific surface growth of bacteria. The character of the 
bacterial growth upon the surface appears therefore to be inci- 
dental or accidental, though its presence may be necessary as 
maintained by Mazé in a recent paper, to exclude air. 
Cheeses of good flavor have both been produced here and 
purchased in the market which indicate that particular surface 
appearances are not essential to the typical flavor. Similarly 
the introduction into new cheeses of species of bacteria found 
in cultures from the interior of good cheeses has produced either 
no effect whatever or disagreeable flavors. Thus far, therefore, 
no species of bacterium has been found capable of producing 
the Camembert flavor. Although the flavor question is mani- 
festly still unsettled, we may offer the following summary of 
the data at hand upon relation of molds to flavor in Camembert 
cheese: 
