Stadtman and Barker1,2, working with extracts of Cl. kluyveri, and Cohen and Cohen-Bazire3–5, using suspensions of butyric acid bacteria, found that acetoacetate is split into two C2-carbon residues. These workers found acetate from acetoacetate, whereas Stadtman and Barker observed a phosphoroclastic splitting of acetoacetate to acetate and acetyl phosphate. It should be noted that the suspensions utilized by Cohen and Cohen-Bazire possess strong acetyl phosphatase activity. Nisman6, utilizing extracts of the same bacteria obtained by ultrasonic vibration, finds that pyruvate yields considerable amounts of acetyl phosphate.