The Puering, Bating & Drenching of SkinsWood, Joseph Turney
Science
The Puering, Bating & Drenching of Skins
Wood, Joseph Turney
Leather
Using a nutrient medium containing 1 per cent. original gelatin, the
maximum bating effect was obtained with the majority of organisms in
three days.
In my previous notes I showed[132] that a mixture of digestive enzymes
and amine hydrochlorates was effective in bating skin. The liquid in
this case was free from bacteria. It was found, however, that the
action of the bate was hastened when an active growth of bacteria was
going on at the same time in the liquid, even though the quantity of
enzyme present was smaller. This is what one might infer from a careful
study of the process. It appears better for small quantities of enzymes
to be produced in the liquid as required, than to use larger quantities
of stale enzymes.
[132] J.S.C.I., 1898, p. 1012.
Mr. Loxley Meggitt was kind enough to concentrate for me about 170
litres of a culture of bating organisms. The concentration was
conducted _in vacuo_ at a temperature below 50° C., at which the
enzymes were certainly not injured, and it was found that when this
concentrated culture was diluted to the same strength as the original,
the action was considerably diminished. This diminution of activity was
due in part to a loss of volatile products in the evaporation, but more
especially to the absence of an active fermentation going on in the
liquid.
The nutrient medium above described, besides acting in a selective
manner on a mixture of bacteria, and providing them with food stuff,
contains amido compounds and other bodies, which are eminently
favourable to the proteolytic action of the enzymes, and therefore act
in the same way as the amine hydrochlorates which I used in former
experiments.
The action of the following bacteria grown in this medium has been
tried on skin. The pure cultures are lettered in continuation of
previous descriptions (see previous paper, p. 162).
1. Bacillus _c_, isolated from pigeon dung bate. Small, round,
bluish-white colonies, standing up slightly above the surface of the
gelatin, but not spreading out on the surface, non-liquefying pairs of
micro-bacteria. This was the principal organism found in a pigeon dung
bate as used for the bating of E.I. kips. Grown in nutrient broth or in
the special medium it had no reducing effect on skin.
2. Bacillus pyocyaneus from blue skin, i.e. skin in an early stage of
putrefaction. No action.
3. Mixed culture from fresh pigeon dung, collected in a sterile vessel.
This contained very few bacteria capable of developing in the special
medium. The action on skin was no more than that due to the chemical
compounds present.
4. Mixed culture from fresh dog dung. This contained remarkably few
species of bacteria which came to a good development in the special
medium. The principal organisms were a jointed bacillus with extremely
rapid vibrionic movement, and a small bacterium in pairs; the action on
skin was perceptible but slight.
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