356 Miscellaneous Intelligence, 



was made during the heat of summer ; and it was effected in half 

 the time, when the gluten, being weighed when fresh, was left to 

 itself for S days till decidedly putrescent, before being added to 

 the sugar. 



3. Fresh beef mixed with sugar and water, in the same pro- 

 portions as the gluten, §*c. above, effected the conversion of the 

 sugar into alcohol in three weeks. The meat being separated by 

 decantation, hand-pressed, and slightly washed, was used to al- 

 coholize a second equal portion of sugar ; fermentation occurred 

 as before, but rather more slowly. 



4. The white of an eg^ mixed with 500 water and 100 sugar, 

 required more than two months before alcohol was formed, but 

 ultimately it was produced. 



5. Cheese a la pie, well drained, obtained from little less than 

 a litre of milk, left to itself for three days, was diffused in a 

 solution of 100 grammes of sugar in 400 of water, the fermen- 

 tation took place in three weeks. Butter-milk in place of cheese, 

 did not succeed so well, in consequence of the diluted state of the 

 caseous matter in it. 



6. A little less than a litre of urine from a healthy person, with 

 100 grammes of sugar, 8;c. caused fermentation, completed in one 

 month. The experiment was repeated successfully. 



7. Finally, 30 grains of isinglass in sufficiency of water, 100 

 grammes of sugar, and enough water to make up a litre, fer- 

 mented ; the experiment being finished in four months. 



In all these trials carbonic acid was disengaged. They were 

 all made during the heat of summer, except the last, for which 

 a stove was employed. All gave alcohol by distillation ; and, it 

 may be added, that in all, the residues underwent spontaneously 

 a second vinous fermentation ; a proof that alcohol arrests fer- 

 mentation, and that though boiling may suspend it, it does not 

 destroy the cause. The latter point was established directly by 

 two experiments, in one of which meat was the ferment ; in the 

 other soft cheese. When these fermentations were arrested by 

 ebullition, and preserved in that state for 10 days, activity was 

 restored to them by contact of air for a time about equal to that 

 required in the first instance. 



These experiments require temperatures of at least 25° C. 



S77° F.) ; that withisinglass required a heat as high as 35° or 40° 

 95° or 104.° F.) ; they were generally terminated in two months, 

 but some were longer, others not so long when the temperature 

 was favourable. Being carefully repeated, nearly the same 

 quantity of alcohol was obtained, whether yeast was used, or 

 any of these substances ; namely, albumen, new cheese, urine, 

 albumen coagulated and putrescent, gliadine, and especially tar- 

 tarized gluten, i. e., gluten mixed with cream of tartar, and tar- 

 tarized albumen. It was not found that zimoma was more effec- 



