HISTORICAL MATERIAL 55 



(1938)] in 1839 anonymously published a skit in which the yeast 

 globules were caricatured as blind, toothless animalcules with 

 bristly suctorial snouts and enormously developed genitalia. 

 These animalcules devoured sugar, whereupon alcohol was voided 

 from the anus and carbon dioxide bubbled from the genital or- 

 gans. If certain alkaloids were present in the sugar solution, the 

 animalcules were capable of emesis, and the vomitus contained 

 fusel oil. Liebig (1839) also published a technical treatise in 

 which he set forth his views on the whole matter of decomposi- 

 tion. He vigorously maintained these views for thirty or more 

 years. In his opinion all decompositions were brought about by 

 chemical instability of a ferment. The ferment itself w r as not an 

 actual chemical substance, but a nitrogen-containing carrier of 

 activity or inciter of decompositions that could transmit its in- 

 stability to other substances. In short, according to Liebig, yeasts 

 were nitrogen-containing, but fermentation was not concerned 

 with the life activities of the yeast itself. Instead the yeast was 

 produced from the gluten. 



The name of Blondeau [Bulloch ( 1938) ] is also worthy of men- 

 tion, since his contributions did much to lay secure foundations 

 for Pasteur's researches on fermentation. Blondeau made a study 

 in 1847 of lactic, butyric, and acetic fermentations and the decom- 

 position of urea and concluded that the different types were in- 

 cited by different fungi, notably Torula cerevisiae, Penicillium 

 glaucum, P. globosum, and Mycoderma vim. 



Finally came Pasteur's epoch-making series of researches, in 

 which he proved that the activity of living yeast is absolutely 

 essential to fermentation, that alcohol and carbon dioxide are by- 

 products of the respiration of yeast, and that sugar can be fer- 

 mented in the entire absence of atmospheric oxygen. This last 

 fact, it should be recalled, had been established by Fabbroni in 

 1787. Pasteur studied not only alcoholic fermentation but also 

 lactic, tartaric, and acetic fermentations. His zeal as a scientific 

 crusader and his professional acumen and forcefulness are evident 

 in certain memoires, notably those dealing with his findings on 

 lactic and alcoholic fermentations [Pasteur (1857, 1858, I860)]. 

 That the enzyme of yeast can act in the absence of living cells 

 was first established by Buchner, in 1897, nearly two years after 

 Pasteur's death. 



