Fermentations by Organisms 805 



Experiment CCCXCIV. June 19. Temperature 18°. 

 Placed in two flasks with cork stoppers water in which fragments 

 of meat have been macerated: 



A. Kept as control. 



B. Cork pierced by a hole, flask shaken until all its walls are wet, 

 then placed in the large mercury receiver, in which compression is 

 made to 20 atmospheres with 88% of oxygen. The pressure therefore 

 corresponds to 88 atmospheres. 



June 24. Temperature 19°. The pressure is still 13.5 atmospheres. 

 A is red and smells bad. Decompression is made and B is immediately 

 sealed; it is amber colored and seems to have no odor. 



July 6. A is very red, rather alkaline; its odor is foul; there is no 

 mold on the surface of it; the very abundant precipitate contains 

 great numbers of very active vibriones, whose extremity ends in a 

 refracting enlargement, and also very active bacteria termo. (The 

 microscopic observations are made with the aid of M. Gayon, assistant 

 to M. Pasteur, at the Normal School.) 



B had begun to redden a few days before; the cork was evidently 

 imperfect. The liquid is covered with greenish mold, consisting of a 

 penicillium with elliptical glossy spores (virens?); it is very slightly 

 alkaline. It exhales a faint odor of mold, but not of putrefaction. 

 There are no vibriones in it, but very small and very active bacteria, 

 and besides, long filaments of unknown nature. 



Experiment CCCXCV. June 26, 1874. Temperature 19°. 



Two thin pieces of meat are placed each in a flask: 



One, A, is corked and kept as control. 



The second, B, is corked, the cork pierced by a hole, then taken 

 to 15 superoxygenated amospheres. I added a little water, then shook 

 it so as to wet the walls and the cork. 



July 21. Decompression made. A has smelled very bad, for some 

 time, through the cork, and is evidently entirely decayed. B is yel- 

 lowish, seems wholesome, and exhales no odor. The cork has been 

 almost entirely driven in. However I cover the whole orifice of the 

 flask with boiling wax. 



August 3. Same condition. 



The flasks are kept the rest of the year, and the meat in B keeps 

 the same appearance. 



January 16, 1875, I show A and B to the Society of Biology. A 

 is completely rotten. B has exactly the same appearance as on July 

 21. 



June 28, 1875, I show these flasks to the Academy of Sciences; 

 same appearance. 



August 3, opened in the chemistry laboratory of M. Chevreul, 

 before M. Cloez; sourish, agreeable odor; slightly acid reaction. The 

 flask being broken, right in the laboratory I place the meat, without 

 precautions, in a flask with a ground stopper. 



August 7, same odor and same appearance; no trace of putre- 

 faction. 



Experiment CCCXCV I. June 25. Two pieces of meat, weighing 31 

 gm., are cut in similar form. 



