In presence of abundant air supply, yeast vegetates with
extraordinary activity. We see this in the weight of new yeast,
comparatively large, that may be formed in the course of a few
hours. The microscope still more clearly shows this activity in
the rapidity of budding, and the fresh and active appearance of
all the cells. Fig. 6 represents the yeast of our last experiment
at the moment when we stopped the fermentation. Nothing has been
taken from imagination, all the groups have been faithfully
sketched as they were. [Footnote: This figure is on a scale of
300 diameters, most of the figures in this work being of 400
diameters].
[Illustration with caption: Fig. 6]
In passing it is of interest to note how promptly the preceding
results were turned to good account practically. In well-managed
distilleries, the custom of aerating the wort and the juices to
render them more adapted to fermentation, has been introduced.
The molasses mixed with water, is permitted to run in thin
threads through the air at the moment when the yeast is added.
Manufactories have been erected in which the manufacture of yeast
is almost exclusively carried on. The saccharine worts, after the
addition of yeast, are left to themselves, in contact with air,
in shallow vats of large superficial area, realizing thus on an
immense scale the conditions of the experiments which we
undertook in 1861, and which we have already described in
determining the rapid and easy multiplication of yeast in contact
with air.
The next experiment was to determine the volume of oxygen
absorbed by a known quantity of yeast, the yeast living in
contact with air, and under such conditions that the absorption
of air was comparatively easy and abundant.
[Illustration with caption: Fig. 7]
With this object we repeated the experiment that we performed
with the large-bottomed flask (Fig. 4), employing a vessel shaped
like Fig. B (Fig. 7), which is, in point of fact, the flask A
with its neck drawn out and closed in a flame, after the
introduction of a thin layer of some saccharine juice impregnated
with a trace of pure yeast. The following are the data and
results of an experiment of this kind.
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