BIOLOGY. 305 



in media where their presence ma}- seem inexplicable ; their ac- 

 tion, as ferments, varies according to the media in which they 

 are found ; in certain cases tliey may be producers of alcohol. 



M. Bechamp has also shown that these microzymce exist also in 

 all the tissues of organic beings, and in a great number of the 

 cells of these tissues. M. Chaveau has also found them in vaccine 

 and small-pox virus, and in similar products, and it is probal)le 

 that they play a part, the extent of which physiologists are 

 only beginning to understand, in various healthy and morbid 

 processes. 



]\I. Bernard has shown that one of the functions of the liver is 

 to produce and store up glucogenous matter, to be gradually trans- 

 formed into glucose. This glucogenous matter is fecula in a pe- 

 culiar condition of solubilitv, like that called soluble fecula, by M. 

 Bechamp. The last-named author, *' Comptes Rendus," March, 

 1868, treats the questions of the seat of this function in the liver, 

 and of the way in which fecula becomes glucose in this organ. 



A zymase or soluble ferment is always the product of a cell or 

 group of living cells ; spontaneously, no albuminoid or other mat- 

 ter becomes a zymase, or acquires its properties ; it requires the 

 presence of organized material. In the mouth, the *' organisms 

 of Leeuwenhoek,^' or molecular granulations, form sialozymase 

 (salivary diastase) with the products of the parotid and other 

 saliva. These granulations (genus Microzyma) are the cause of 

 the fermentation in old wines, in solutions of cane-sugar and 

 starchy pastes with chalk, exist in the tissues of organic beings, 

 and are constant elements of the hepatic cells. From experiments 

 with the latter, he concludes: 1. That these granulations of the 

 liver are imputrescible, insoluble in acetic acid and potash solu- 

 tions, and endowed with a mobility which persists even in viscid 

 liquid. 2. They render fluid starch paste with rapidity, and pro- 

 duce soluble fecula. 3. By the zymase, which they produce with 

 the albuminoid matters of the liver cells, they cause the formation 

 of glucose. 



In the sap of vegetables, according to M. De Monchy, *' Comptes 

 Rendus," March, 1868, are large numbers of granules having an 

 oscillating motion, called by botanists "movable globules." The 

 same granules have been noticed in the pollen-bearing utricles, 

 in the liquids of insects, especially in the eggs and larvsB of lepi- 

 doptera, and in the posterior part of the body in spiders, also in 

 the pigment layer of the choroid coat of the eye. His experi- 

 ments there detailed, show that these oscillating granules, from 

 all the above sources, are organisms acting powerfully, like fer- 

 ments, on the matters with which they are naturally in contact. 

 They act on cane-sugar, starch, and gelatine as ferments, trans- 

 forming them more or less quickly and completely into glucose. 

 The function of these granules is to assist in the ripening of fruits, 

 and in both the animal and vegetable kingdom to elaborate certain 

 matters for the nourishment of germs and the incessant regenera- 

 tion of organs. Leydig says: "We may state absolutely that 

 what we call ' elements of formation * are preceded by a series of 

 creations." M. Monchy regards these oscillating granules as the 



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