INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
June 20, 19Z4
A Remarkable Description of Alcoholic Fermentation B Y E. F . NATIONAL
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Huxley mentions t h e article below which appeared anonymously in Wohler and Liebig's Annalen, 2 as follows: " B u t , though the notion t h a t torula is a creature which eats sugar and excretes carbonic acid and alcohol, which is not unjustly ridiculed in the most surprising paper t h a t ever made its appearance in a grave scientific journal, may be untenable, the fact t h a t the torulae are alive, and that yeast does excite fermentation unless it contains living torulae stands fast." And further in a footnote— "which is a somewhat Rabelaisian imaginary description of * the organization of the *y ea st animals' and of the manner in which their functions are performed, is given with a circumstantiality worthy of the author of "Gulliver's Travels." I t brings to mind in a striking way the strong convictions of t h e leaders in science t h a t Pasteur had t o oppose before securing adoption of his discoveries. Although we cannot ascribe the authorship of this article directly to Wohler or Iviebig, yet, occurring where it does, it is proof of their opposition t o views such as Pasteur espoused. Liebig's views, in short, were t h a t the fermentation was due to decomposing animal or vegetable matter which brought about a decomposition of the sugar, and in 1845 he wrote: "As to the opinion which explains putrefaction of animal substances by t h e presence of microscopic animalculae, it may be compared to t h a t of a child who would explain the rapidity of the Rhine current by attributing it to violent movement of the numerous mill wheels of Mayence." Of course Pasteur's most determined adversaries were the whole school of spontaneous generation philosophy. But probably his most enduring adversaries were in the medical profession. As late as 1877 Pasteur wrote to D r . Bastian: " D o you know why I desire so much to fight and conquer you? It is because you are one of the principal adepts of a medical doctrine which 1 believe to be fatal to progress in the art of healing— the doctrine of the spontaneity of all diseases. T h a t is a n error which, I repeat it, is harmful t o medical progress. From the prophylactic as well as from the therapeutic point of view, t h e fate of the physician and surgeon depends upon the adoption of the one or the other of these two doctrines." Ten years later he showed even less patience with opponents in the medical profession. After listening to a doctor hold forth his objections to microbian doctrines, he replied as follows: "Sir, your language is not very intelligible to me. I am not a physician and do not desire to be one. Never speak to me of your dogma of morbid spontaneity. I am a chemist; I carry o u t experiments and I try to understand what they teach me." The following is a very literal translation from Wôhler and Liehig's Annalen, 29. 100 (1839). » " E s s a y o n Y e a s t , " 1871. » Vol. 29, 100 ( 1 8 3 9 ) .
KOHMAN
C A N N E R S * ASSOCIATION,
WASHINGTON,
D.
C.
T h e Solved Riddle of Alcoholic Fermentation (A preliminary
report by leiter)
I am in the act of unraveling a new theory of vinous fermentation. I came upon the trail of this, until now so mysterious a change, in t h e simplest manner in the world and regard it a s full ν settled. This discovery, too, shows again how sim ple are the means of which nature makes use, to bring forth t h e most wonderful phenomenon. I owe thanks to the use of a remarkable microscope which, ac cording to the statement of the renowned Khrenberg, was devised by t h e dis tinguished artificer Pistorius. Beer yeast, dispersed with water, is dissolved under this instrument into end less small pellets whose diameter is scarcely Vsoo that of a line, and into fine threads which are unmistakably a sort of protein material. If o n e intro duces these pellets into sugar water, one observes t h a t they consist of t h e eggs of an animal; they swell, burst and tiny animals are evolved from them, which multiply with inconceivable rapidity in a most unparalleled manner. T h e form of these animals deviates from every one of the 600 hitherto described species; they possess the shape of a "Beindorfschen" distillation flask (without t h e cooling apparatus). The nozzle of t h e helmet is a sort of sucking proboscis which is lined on the inside with bristles Vaooo of a line in length; teeth and e y e s are not noticeable ; on the other hand o n e can easily distinguish a stomach, in testinal canal, the anus (as a rose-red colored point) and t h e urinary secretoryorgans. From the moment t h a t t h e y have escaped from t h e eggs, it is observed t h a t these animals gobble up t h e s u g a r out of the solution; very plainly i t i s seen as it arrives in the stomach. M o mentarily it is digested, and this digestion is simultaneously and in a most concise manner distinguishable from t h e evacua tion of excrements which follows. In a word these infusoria eat sugar, evacuate from the intestinal t r a c t alcohol, and f r o m the urinary organs carbon dioxide. T h e urinary bladder, in a filled condition, has the form of a champagne bottle ; in an empty condition it is a sma.ll button ; one notices after a little practice that a gas bubble forms within it which enlarges 10 times; by means of a sort of screw like rotation which t h e animal can b r i n g about voluntarily b y ring-like muscles surrounding its body, the bladder i s emptied. I consider it to be exceedingly probable that herein the same t a k e s place as when galvanic electricity is c o n ducted through a wire; it is known t h a t according to the opinion of the renowned physicists magnetism is generated u n d e r such conditions. This likewise, instead of following a straight course, i n which i t is nowise hindered, yet in accordance w i t l i a law of nature, takes the course of aspirai. I cite this only as a proof t h a t in fer mentation, as Dôbereiner and Sehweigger have shown, magnetism and electricity are simultaneously involved. Our e x -
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perience here proves the correctness of their observation which was not supported by a powerful microscope. Without going further into this hypothesis, one observes uninterruptedly a specific lighter liquid rising to considerable height from the anus of these animals and out of their enormous genital organs there is squirted at very short intervals a stream of carbon dioxide. If the liquid is heated to boiling, the fermentation ceases because the animals are killed at elevated temperatures. If one adds stilfurous acid, an excess of alcohol, a mineral acid, or acetic acid, they likewise die and the fermentation is terminated. If the quantity of water is too small, i. e., that of the sugar too great, the fermentation, as is known, does not begin. This is due to the fact that these little beings, because they cannot change their position or only with great strain in the heavy liquid, die of indigestion as a consequence of a lack of exercise. In order now to give an idea of comparison of t h e digestive power of these animals, I submit the estimate of Thenard, according t o which 3 parts of beer yeast (in the dry state) are able to transform '200 parts of sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The excrement of these animals, which is discharged in IS hours, weighs therefore o(i times as much as the animals themselves. Remarkable is the influence of essential mustard oil on these animals; if one introduces a few mustard seeds into the fermenting liquid, it is noticeable at once that their activity becomes less, after a few moments they are lifeless, but after a few hours, especially in contact with air, they revive again and the fermentation begins with its previous activity. This effect is very much like t h a t of anisol, from whose odor, as is known, a flea becomes unconscious and remains so until the oil evaporates. I have noticed that solanin causes vomiting in these infusoria; if one adds solanin t o an actively fermenting sugar solution, the animals are observed to double up, and out of their proboscis there streams a liquid which unquestionably is the fusel oil of potatoes, for it can be identified in the liquid. The fusel oil of the grains and of brandy seems to be exuded from the surface of the skin in a sort of perspiration process. There still remains one question to be answered, namely, the reason for the ravenous, incomparable hunger of these animals for the sugar which they assimilate for their bodies. This, too, is clear now. The fine threads of protein material already alluded to, and which furnish these animals with nitrogen, are consumed and assimilated with a proportionate a m o u n t of sugar. T h e most remarkable thing is the chemical composition of these animals. I subjected to analysis 0.4375 gram (50,000 million by count) by the usual method with copper oxide and duplicate analyses showed t h a t they contained the four elements in such a combination as though they consisted of protein (according t o the analysis of Mulder), ether and carbon dioxide. This clears up not only their whole digestive process but also the hitherto obscure conjecture as t o what might become of the yeast after the fermentation is complete. As soon as these animals find no more sugar at hand, they mutually {Continued on page 5)
