CALIFORNIA  BEER,  OR  YEAST  PLANT. 
409 
Sal  Soda,  21  lbs.  14  oz.  avoirdupois. 
Tartaric  acid,  15  lbs.  " 
Sugar,  (white)  24  lbs.  44 
Water  to  make         25  gals.  44 
It  is  them  put  into  strong  twelve  ounce  bottles,  and  thirty-five 
grains  of  bicarbonate  of  soda  added  to  each  bottle,  and  im- 
mediately corked  and  fastened  by  twine  or  wire. 
This  preparation  has  been  used  in  Louisville  for  about  six 
years,  and  is  gradually  extending  over  various  parts  of  the 
West  and  South.  Wherever  it  has  once  got  into  use,  it  has 
never  been  abandoned,  and  the  names  of  hundreds  of  physicians 
could  be  obtained,  certifying  to  its  utility  and  preference  over  the 
citrate  of  magnesia.  I  think  that  it  would  be  well  for  our 
Pharmacopoeia  to  adopt  it. 
CALIFORNIA  BEER,  OR  YEAST  PLANT, 
By  the  Editor. 
A  correspondent  in  North  Carolina  has  forwarded  to  us  a 
small  vial  of  a  yellowish  opaque  fluid,  which  he  states  is  the  so- 
called  44  California  beer  "  plant.  Since  then  we  have  received 
a  small  package  of  a  translucent  gum-like  matter,  labelled 
"  California  Beer  Plant,"  from  Wm.  H.  Bassett,  of  California. 
The  Southern  Medical  Journals  have  had  several  communications 
in  them  referring  to  certain  deleterious  results,  and  even  death, 
from  the  use  of  this  44  beer  "  in  bread  making,  which  appear  to 
be  unfounded.  Dr.  W.  H.  Bowling,  the  Editor  of  the  Nashville 
Journal  of  Medicine  and  Surgery,  (see  that  Journal,  May,  I860,) 
thinks  that  it  is  identical  with  Torula  cerevisice,  the  common 
yeast  plant,  or  if  not  identical,  closely  allied  to  it.  He  says, 
«  Let  us  put  now  this  California  yeast  under  the  microscope, 
and  we  will  find  the  same  thing — a  number  of  oval  cells,  con- 
taining granules,  and  multiplied  by  budding  in  a  manner  similar 
to  that  of  yeast,  and  like  it,  only  somewhat  smaller,  as  far  as 
we  have  seen.  The  plant  has  probably  the  same  origin  as  the 
yeast  plant,  but  what  that  is  is  a  mystery,"  &c.  Dr.  Leicly,  to 
whom  a  portion  of  this  specimen  was  submitted,  finds  it  to  be 
the  same  plant  as  in  ordinary  yeast.  We  confess  to  being  quite 
ignorant  of  the  history  of  the  so-called  44  California  beer  "  plant, 
