As a result of my first investigations, on December 11, 1889, I read a short paper entitled “Methods of Bacteriological Research—with some account of Bran Fermentation,” before the Society of Chemical Industry.
The way in which this paper was received led to a further research into the nature of bran fermentation in conjunction with Mr. W. H. Willcox, B.Sc. (now Senior Analyst to the Home Office), by which the action of the bran drench was thoroughly investigated, and the results published in the Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry, May 31, 1893.
This was followed, on June 30, 1897, by a paper “On a Pure Cultivation of a Bacillus Fermenting Bran Infusions,” also in conjunction with Dr. Willcox.
In 1898, in reply to a publication of Director Eitner, of Vienna, I published in the Leather Trades’ Review (November 15), a résumé of the whole subject, entitled “The Rationale of Drenching.”
Already, in the first paper above named (“Methods of Bacteriological Research”), I had called attention to the bacteria of the bate prepared from dogs’ dung, and in a paper entitled “Fermentation in the Leather Industry,”[3] developed this aspect of the subject, and first pointed out the influence of enzymes in bating. I therefore decided to study the phenomena occurring in the bate in the same way as I had studied drenching.
The work was begun in 1895, and, as it was likely to occupy an indefinite time, the first instalment, entitled “Notes on the Constitution and Mode of Action of the Dung Bate in Leather Manufacture,” was published November 30, 1898; while “Further Notes on the Action of the Dung Bate” was published on November 30, 1899.
In these papers I indicated the lines on which a culture of bacteria might be practically applied to the bating of skins, and gave the composition of a liquid which, while acting as a nutrient medium for the bacteria, contained at the same time most of the active chemical compounds of dog dung.
Meanwhile, Dr. Popp and Dr. Becker, in Frankfort a/M, were investigating independently the bacteria of dog dung, and conceived the idea of employing them commercially. My dear friend Franz Kathreiner, of Worms,[4] put me in communication with these gentlemen, and we were thus enabled to work in conjunction. As a result of our combined labours, an artificial bate, called “Erodin,” was put upon the market. This will be fully treated of in the chapter on Artificial Bates.
I shall give first a short account of bating, and then sum up as briefly as possible the present state of our knowledge of the process, afterwards giving an account of the more important of the various patents which have been taken out for artificial bates.
Although the book is divided into separate sections for convenience, it is obvious that we cannot separate chemistry from physics, nor bacteriology from chemistry, nor enzyme action from all three.