182 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



five times its volume of water, and the mixture submitted to the action 

 of a stream of vapor which carries over the alcoholic product. The 

 vapors are condensed ; the alcoholic liquid thus obtained is re-distilled 

 over a little lime, to separate any sulphuric acid which may have dis- 

 tilled over, and the liquid condensed from this distillation is rectified to 

 produce alcohol of 90. The residue of this operation is, as we have 

 seen, sulphuric acid of 20 to 25, and a gaseous mixture representing 

 the gas from ordinary coal less H S, N H 3 , and C 4 H 4 ; this latter can 

 be advantageously used for fuel." 



PASTEUR'S RESEARCHES ON FERMENTATION AND PUTREFACTION. 



For some years past, M. Pasteur, a distinguished French chemist, 

 has been engaged in investigating the phenomena of fermentation and 

 putrefaction, and the results attained to by him constitute some of the 

 most important contributions made to chemical science during the past 

 few years. In the report of researches heretofore published, (see An- 

 nual of Scientific Discovery, 1861, p. 228 ; 1862, p. 237, and 1863, 237.) 

 M. Pasteur claims to have proved that the effects hitherto attributed 

 to the atmosphere of oxidizing and thus consuming dead organic mat- 

 ter, are really dependent on the growth of infusorial animalculae. In a 

 recent paper submitted to the French academy, M. Pasteur says, - 

 " We must banish from science those preconceived views which con- 

 sisted in the supposition that a whole class of organic substances the 

 nitrogenous could acquire, by the hypothetical influence of direct 

 oxidation, an occult force characterized by an internal movement, 

 ready to communicate itself to organic substances pretended to be 

 slightly stable." And further, " the slow combustion of organic matter 

 after death, though real, is scarcely perceptible if the air is deprived of 

 the germs of the lower organisms. It becomes rapid if the organic mat- 

 ter is permitted to cover itself with moulds, mildews, bacteriums, and 

 monads. . . . The intermediate principles of organized beings 

 would be, in some sort, indestructible, if we were able to suppress 

 altogether those beings which God has made so extremely small, so use- 

 less in appearance, and life would become impossible, because the re- 

 turn to the atmosphere and to the mineral kingdom of that which had 

 ceased to live would be entirely suspended." 



M. Pasteur's latest researches have led to the opinion that all fer- 

 mentation, properly so-called, as well as the phenomena of putrefaction, 

 is due to the presence of infusorial animalcules, which are able to live, 

 (and do in fact live) and multiply without the presence of free oxygen 

 gas, and without any contact with air. These animalcules belong to 

 the genus vibrio, a genus which according to Ehrenberg contains six 

 species. Why they should thus act as ferments, M. Pasteur does not 

 undertake to explain, but he calls attention to this interesting fact; 

 namely, " That while the ordinary actions of vegetables and animals 

 upon the principles (substances) which nourish them, is not associated 

 with fermentation, properly so-called ; " we have, in the case of these 

 animalcules, " the fact of nutrition accompanied by fermentation, and a 

 nutrition without the consumption of free oxygen." 



M. Pasteur's latest paper presented to the French Academy dis- 

 cusses especially the phenomena of putrefaction, and it contains so many 

 points of interest, that we give from the Comptes Rendus a full abstract 

 of it. He says, 



