Under these conditions, not only does the _mycoderma vini_ not form a sufficiency of alcohol for analytical determination, but, if any alcohol exists in the subjacent liquid, the _mycoderma_ consumes it, converting it into water and carbonic acid gas, by fixation of the oxygen of the air.[68] If, however, we suddenly submerge the _mycoderma_, we shall obtain a different result. If, on the one hand, the conditions of life of this fungus are incompatible with the altered circumstances in which it is placed, the plant must perish, just as an animal does when deprived of oxygen. But if, in spite of these changed conditions of nutrition, it can still continue in life, we should expect to see marked changes in its organic structure, or chemical metamorphoses. The result of our observations points to the continuance of life, in a distinct though sluggish and fugacious activity, accompanied by the phenomena of alcoholic fermentation, that is, the evolution of carbonic acid gas, and the production of alcohol. If we take a drop of liquid charged with disjointed cells of _mycoderma_, a day or two immediately after the submersion of the film, we shall observe changes, small but appreciable, in the aspect of a great number of these cells; they will show increase in size, their protoplasm will be in process of modification, and many of them will have put forth little buds. It will be quite evident, however, that these acts of interior nutrition and the changes of tissue resulting from them, proceed with difficulty; the buds when they form will soon wither, and there will be no multiplication of new cells. These changes will, nevertheless, be accompanied by the decomposition of sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid.