CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 185 



lime. This new compound, indecomposable by the vibrio which pro- 

 voked its formation, will remain indefinitely in the liquid without any 

 change. But repeat the operation in contact with air. As fast as tha 

 vibrion-ferments act in the interior of the liquid, the pellicle on the 

 surface gradually and completely burns the butyratc. If the fermen- 

 tation is very active, this combustion is arrested, but entirely because the 

 carbonic acid that is disengaged hinders the arrival of atmospheric air. 

 The phenomenon recommences as soon as the fermentation is finished 

 or lessened in rapidity. It is precisely the same, if we cause a naturally 

 sweet liquid to ferment under shelter from air ; the liquid is charged 

 with alcohol almost indestructible ; while if we operate with contact of 

 air, the alcohol, after being acetified is burnt and transformed entirely 

 into water and carbonic acid. Then the vibrions appear, and in their 

 suite putrefaction, when the liquid only contains water and nitrogenous 

 matter. At length, in their turn, the vibrions and the products of pu- 

 trefaction are burnt by the bacteriums or the mucors, of which the last 

 survivors incite the combustion of their predecessors, and thus is ac- 

 complished the return of the organized matter to the atmosphere and 

 to the mineral kingdom. 



" Let us now consider the putrefaction of solid bodies. I have re- 

 cently shown that the body of an animal is, under ordinary circum- 

 stances, shut against the introduction of the germs of inferior beings ; 

 consequently putrefaction begins first at the surface, and afterwards 

 reaches the interior of a solid mass. If a whole animal is left after death 

 either in contact with, or sheltered from air, its surface is covered with 

 germs of inferior organism which the atmosphere has conveyed. Its 

 intestinal canal in which faecal matters are formed is filled not only 

 with germs, but with fully-developed vibrions, as Leewenhoek per- 

 ceived. These vibrions are much in advance of those on the surface 

 of the body. They are adult individuals, deprived of air, bathed in 

 liquids, and in process of multiplication and function-performance. It 

 is by their aid the putrefaction of the body begins, which has only been 

 preserved up to that time by life and the nutrition of its organs." 



After a few observations, M. Pasteur declares his conviction that 

 " neither in their origin nor in their nature is there any resemblance 

 between putrefaction and gangrene," and he adds, " instead of being a 

 putrefaction, properly so-called, gangrene appears to be that condition 

 of an organ in which one part is preserved in spite of death from pu- 

 trefaction, and in which the liquids and solids act and react chemically 

 and physically beyond the normal actions of nutrition." 



We shall only remark upon this very important and interesting 

 paper that few English microscopists adhere to Ehrenberg's notion, 

 which is adopted by M. Pasteur, that vibrions are animals. On the 

 contrary, most authorities, agree that they belong to the vegetable 

 kingdom, and are in many cases transitional forms of Algae. 



FERMENTATION AS A CAUSE OF DISEASE. 



M. Polli, of Milan, Italy, has recently published a treatise " on fer- 

 mentation as the cause of various diseases." He states that there exists 

 a great analogy between the processes of fermentation and many or- 

 ganic metamorphoses, which occur in some diseases ; and he has made 

 experiments by injecting substances into the blood-vessels of animals, 



1C* 



