Bijdrage tot de kennis der dissimilatie van vetzure zouten en koolhydraten door thermophiele bacterien

The dissimilation of calcium formate and lacetate, cellulose, amylose and sugars was investigated at temperatures above 55 °C. It was found that calcium formate and acetate were quantitatively fermented to C0 2 and CH 4 by thermophilic bacteria. All experiments were carried out with mixed cultures as it was impossible to obtain a pure culture of these bacteria. The thermophilic fermentation of cellulose, arnylose and sugars yielded calcium formate and acetate, CO 2 , H 2 , and sometimes CH 4 . A correlation between these two processes was, however, missing. Two isolated strains of the genus Bacillus were able to hydrolyze cellulose and arnylose but no fermentation was observed. Another strain of Bacillus fermented arnylose and sugars producing C0 2 , H 2 , and butyric, acetic and lactic acids. The thermophilic fermentation of plant residues leading to C0 2 and CH 4 was shown to proceed much more readily than the mesophilic process

Private trade and monopoly structures : the East India Companies and the commodity trade to Europe in the eighteenth century

Our research is about the trade in material goods from Asia to Europe over this period, and its impact on Europe’s consumer and industrial cultures. It entails a comparative study of Europe’s East India Companies and the private trade from Asia over the period. The commodities trade was heavily dependent on private trade. The historiography to date has left a blind spot in this area, concentrating instead on corruption and malfeasance. Taking a global history approach we investigate the trade in specific consumer goods in many qualities and varieties that linked merchant communities and stimulated information flows. We set out how private trade functioned alongside and in connection with the various European East India companies; we investigate how this changed over time, how it drew on the Company infrastructure, and how it took the risks and developed new and niche markets for specific Asian commodities that the Companies could not sustain