WE have been able to examine a polysaccharide formed from sucrose by an organism (Betabacterium vermiformg) recently studied by Prof. A. J. Kluyver, to whom we are greatly indebted for a culture. The organism was isolated by Mr H. D. Meyer (private communication) in the course of an extensive and careful bacteriological examination of "Tibi-complex ". The latter originates in Mexico where it occurs in the form of hard granules on the disk-shaped leaves of the Opundia plant. It has long been used by the natives for the preparation of a beverage by fermentation and is analogous to the classic example, the Kephir yeast of the Arabs. As in the case of Kephir, Tibi fermentation is due to the symbiotic action of a yeast and a bacterium. The bacterium isolated by Meyer appeared to be identical with that isolated by Ward [1892] from the Ginger-beer plant.
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Daker et al. (1938) studied this question.