The morning call., 1891-08-16
MOLD ON JAM,
Something That will Interest Prudent House.
Keepers

One of the forms most familiar to us in
home life is the Mucor mucedo which at.
tacks our jam. l saw pretty specimen of
this couple of years ago when visiting q
country house in Shropshire. l was called
into the store-room of my hostess to condole
with her on the moldiness of her jam. On
looking about for an explanation, l found
that the kitchen chimney passed up the
side of the wall where the jam was kept.
Here was favorable condition number one.
AS L have frequently observed that home
made jam was left to itself for day or two
before being covered, il was not difficult to
conjecture condition number two. Inside
the Jam pot an exquisite little colony of
mildew was flourishng. The jam was more
than half gone, absorbed into the vitality of
the immature forest.
To prove to my hostess how easy it was
to produce crop OF mods on any suitable
media l cut q piece Of bread from a loaf,
moistened it with water, and, to give it the
darkness which it prefers, placed it in a
muffin dish with the lid on. Carving my
extemporZed laboratory to the warm corner
where the jam had stood, l awaited with
deep interest the Modification of those
seeds which no eye had seen and which no
human hand had Sown.
On the second day signs of developm ent
had begun, not in one spot, not equally all
over, but in scattered dots over the surface
Of the bread, much like the geatine plates
in the hospital wards. On the third day my
garden had burst into flower, and was
radiant with molds of varied and exquisite
color. Next day my little garden was still
quite gay with pink, yellow, violet and dark
molds, all trying to crowd each other out
About the fifth day the little world within
the muffin dish was demonstrating the great
law of nature, that "all that has lived must
die" in that the pabulum which gave life
was exhausted and consumed. My brilliant
mOlds were dead, and in their turn were
supplying pabulum for another set of organ
isms awaiting the necessary conditions of
their life At the end of week ali was a
tumble of life and death, the bread was be-
ing rapidly liquefied and dissolved away in
buttery-lo0klng mass. The result of this
activity was SO extremely unpleasant that |
was glad to seek the aid of mother earth,
the great deodoriZar, and to bury my expert
ment in the ground,
These little intruders appear before us in
many domestic and questionable shapes.
For instance, when the milk turns blue and
sour, or when the milk turns red instead of
blue. Even bread is known to turn red I'M
der their Influence. and DR.. Prudden of New
ork in his charming little book describes
the terror of boarding house cook, who,
on going to her larder, found her sauSages
all turned red; "a fiery e1figy which seemed
to her more like the quondam spirits of their
mysterious Ingredients than the unctuous.
homely friend of the homeless boarder."
This phenomen0n Is due to the same species
as that which brings about the miracle of the
bleeding host, by turning the water red, and
1t also causes rain to turn red under certain
favorable conditions. 1t is now cultivated
in the laboratory, where it can be seen issu-
ing from the culture media in small droplets
like bloOd.-The Nineteenth Century.