CAGNIARD-LATOUR, SCHWANN, HELMHOLTZ 



61 



to the mind of Thenard to consider it as anything but a 

 chemical compound. As for the intervention of the 

 oxygen, that also was only chemistry. But at this 

 time there appeared in science a new idea, founded on an 

 old observation, made for the first time in 1680 by Leu- 

 wenhoeck, then by Desmazieres in 1825, and renewed in. 



Fig. 7. -Top yeast of beer. 



Young. 



Old. 



1835, almost simultaneously, in Germany by Kutzing 

 and Schwann, and in France by Cagniard-Latour. 

 Subjecting the yeast to a microscopical examination, all 

 these observers had seen that it consisted of ovoid or 

 spherical globules of an organized aspect (Fig. 7), which 

 Cagniard-Latour had the merit to consider as clearly 

 living beings, "Capable of reproducing themselves by 



