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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



higher object of bringing the principles of 

 the subject into relation with philosophical 

 biology. The scientific significance of fer- 

 mentation lies in the fact that it brings be- 

 fore us the action and effects of the lowest 

 and most elemental forms of living organ- 

 isms; it deals with the behavior and influ- 

 ence in numerous relations of elementary 

 organisms reduced to a single cell ; but these 

 cells are the units of all organic life, a plant 

 or an animal of a higher order being only 

 the union under special laws of different 

 kinds of cells, each of which acts in a cer- 

 tain determinable manner. AVhile the high- 

 er organisms baffle analysis from the infinite 

 complexity and diversity of their minute or 

 histological elements, the key to their study 

 is offered in these lower structures, for " the 

 more simple an organism is, the fewer spe- 

 cial kinds of cells it contains, the simpler 

 are the chemical reactions which take place 

 in it, and the more easily are they separated 

 from each other and isolated by experi- 

 ment ; " and from this point of view the 

 history of fermentation becomes nothing 

 less than that of the chemical phenomena 

 of life. The thorough study of ferments, 

 therefore, becomes an indispensable scien- 

 tific prerequisite to the knowledge of the 

 higher organisms. 



The investigation of the influence of 

 different ferment-cells in initiating differ- 

 ent lines of chemical change brings us into 

 closer quarters with the relations of chemi- 

 cal and so-called vital forces. As the dif- 

 ferent radiant forces, thermal, luminous, and 

 chemical, produce their profoundly diverse 

 effects simply by variations of wave-length, 

 so the different kind of cells are supposed 

 to initiate different chemical changes by 

 differences in the vibratory rhythm which 

 starts them. In relation to this point our 

 author remarks : 



" The transformation of sugar into alcohol 

 and carbon dioxide and the conversion of Hie 

 same body into lactic acid are chemical phe- 

 nomena which we cannot yet reproduce by the 

 intervention of beat alone, nor by the additional 

 agency of light or of electricity. The force capa- 

 ble of attacking, in a certain determinate direc- 

 tion, the complex edifice which we call sugar, an 

 edifice composed of atorae of carbon, hydrogen, 

 and oxygen, grouped according to a determinate 

 law tldn force, which is manifested only in the 

 living cell of the ferment, is a force as material 

 as all those which we are accustomed to utilize. 

 lid principal peculiarity is, that it is only found I 



in the living organisms, to which it gives their 

 peculiar character. We ought not to allow our- 

 selves to be stopped by this rampart, over which 

 no oue has hitherto been able to pass ; we ought 

 not to say to the chemist, 'You shall go no 

 farther, for beyond this is the domain of life, 

 where you have no control.' The history of 

 science shows us the weakness of these so-called 

 impassable barriers. No one can any longer 

 admit that vital force has power over matter, to 

 change, counterbalance, or annul, the natural 

 play of chemical affinities. That which we have 

 agreed to call chemical affinity is not an absolute 

 force ; this affinity is modified in numberless 

 ways, according as the circumstances vary by 

 which bodies are surrounded. Thus, the appar- 

 ent differences between the reactions of the lab- 

 oratory and those of the organism ought to be 

 sought for, more particularly among the special 

 conditions, which the latter alone has been able 

 hitherto to bring together. In other words, there 

 is really no chemical vital force. If living cells 

 produce reactions which seem peculiar to them- 

 selves, it is because they realize conditions of 

 molecular mechanism which we have not hith- 

 erto succeeded in tracing, but which we shall, 

 without doubt, be able to discover at some future 

 time. Science can e.ain nothing by being limiied 

 in the possibility of the aims which she proposes 

 to herself, or the end which she seeks." 



Memoir of Sir Benjamin Thompson (Count 

 Rumford), with Notices of his Daugh- 

 ter. By George E. Ellis. Published, 

 in connection with an edition of Rum- 

 ford's Complete Works, by the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences. Boston. 

 Pp. 680. 



Rumford's Complete Works, vol. I., pp. 493. 

 Vol. II., pp. 570. Vol. III., pp. 504. Vol. 

 IV., pp. 842. Price of the set, including 

 the " Life," $25.00. Boston : Estes & 

 Lauriat. 



We elsewhere publish a brief notice of 

 the life of Count Rumford so brief as 

 hardly to give a just idea of the interest 

 that attaches to the romantic and remark- 

 able story of his career. But few biogra- 

 phies are richer in varied incident, or fuller 

 of instruction, than this of Rumford ; and its 

 literary execution, by Mr. Ellis, is well 

 worthy of the subject. The four volumes 

 of his works comprise not only all the 

 Count's essays, formerly published in Eng- 

 lish, but also valuable papers written by 

 him in French and German which have been 

 first translated for this edition. The col- 

 lection has been supervised by the Rumford 

 Committee of the American Academy of 

 Sciences, who have grouped together in the 

 several volumes, as far as was practicable, 

 the papers on allied subjects : thus the sci- 



