44f YIWOUS FERMENTAnON. 



This theory This theory, appears to me fo much the more probable, 



ffa"^ ^' becaufe it perfedly accords with fads; and this truth becomes 



though not yet particularly ft riking when we compare them. I am far, how- 

 comp etc. ever, from confidering it as complete. Time no doubt will 



beftow on it the perfedion it wants ; and I hope myfelf foon 

 What remains to add to its evidence. I know not whether I ftiall be able to 

 to be done. difcover what becomes of the azot of the ferment : but I fhall 

 afcertain without difficulty, whether the refidual matter ob- 

 tained, which I confider as a peculiar fubftance, be a produd 

 of fermentation, as I believe ; whether the fugar contribute 

 to its formation, which is poffible; or whether it be ready 

 formed, and merely precipitated, which is contrary to all pro- 

 bability. The experiments, that remove all my doubts on this 

 bead, I (hall relate in a fecond memoir, in which I tliall not 

 only elucidate fuch points in this as may appear equivocal, or 

 at befl refting on too flight foundations, but I (liall alfo exhibit 

 all the particulars that refult from them. Here on the con- 

 trary I have avoided them as much as poffible, and endeavoured 

 to confider the phenomenon only in a general way. 



VII. 



Conjedtures refpediing the Formation of the Ice in the Cavern of 

 Grace-Dieu. J5[y C . L. C a d e t, of the College of Pharmacy*, 



A cavern 146 jtLBOUT fix or feven leagues from Befan^on, near the vil- 

 ^roiin?'^*"ts en- ^^o® ^^ Beaume, and half a league from the abbey of Grace- 

 trance 60 feet Dieu, there is a natural grotto, 1 46 feet below the furface of 



broad and 80 



I'^Jfeet.'*'"*^^'^ pofed, that its oxigen unites with the carbon of the ferment, and 

 produces carbonic acid, while its hidrogen combines with the fugar, 

 and converts it into alcohol. For this theory to be admifTible, we 

 fhoidd obtain more alcohol than there was fugar; but the fa6l is, 

 little more than half its weight is produced, and befides, fuppofing 

 all the carbon of the decompofed ferment to be converted into car- 

 bonic acid, at moft not above a fixth part of the quantity adually 

 produced would be formed, as we may eafily convince ourfelves 

 from calculations already eftabliflied. It may likewife be objeded 

 to this theory, that fugar contains a great deal of oxigen, and al- 

 cohol very little. 



* Annates deChimie, No. 134, Feb. 1803, p. 160. 



the 



