. Microbes & toxins. Bacteriology; Toxins; Antitoxins. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MICROBES 83 experiment). There is even alcohol in animal tissues. There is, therefore, nothing surprising in the presence of alcohol throughout nature, in the soil, in water, in air, and in the sea; if it is true that the latter contains one millionth of its weight (one gram per cubic metre) there must be an enormous supply. Since the discovery by H. Buchner of zymase—the diastase by which the yeast decomposes sugar—we know that it is on the zymase rather than on the anaerobic conditions that the alcoholic fermentatio
. Microbes & toxins. Bacteriology; Toxins; Antitoxins. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MICROBES 83 experiment). There is even alcohol in animal tissues. There is, therefore, nothing surprising in the presence of alcohol throughout nature, in the soil, in water, in air, and in the sea; if it is true that the latter contains one millionth of its weight (one gram per cubic metre) there must be an enormous supply. Since the discovery by H. Buchner of zymase—the diastase by which the yeast decomposes sugar—we know that it is on the zymase rather than on the anaerobic conditions that the alcoholic fermentation depends. But since the zymase only appears when the yeast is shut off from the air, it too is " an asphyxial function " and we return to Pasteur's formula. Duclaux has re-established the continuity between the two methods of respiration by his idea of the constant operation of the zymase in aerobic as much as in anaerobic life and by maintaining that alcohol is produced by living tissues, not pathologically but normally. " Alcohol is a normal and necessary product in the digestion of the hydrocarbons of the seed. When oxygen is present, this alcohol is burnt up and escapes observation. To demonstrate it the plant must be submitted to a degree of asphyxia which just lets it live, or rather, which permits the action of the zymase which it contains. It is not the asphyxia which pro- duces the alcohol, it only renders it per- ; Further, absolute anaerobiosis does not exist either in nature or in our artificial cultures. The pretty experiment of Denys Cochin shows that yeast even under anaerobic con- ditions the most complete possible cannot do without oxygen G 2. Fig. 36.—Cochin's Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Burnet, Etienne, 1873-1960; Broquet
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