50 STRONG DRINK AND TOBACCO SMOKE. 



presence of a plaut of the very lowest type of organiza- 

 tion when placed in a medium which forms, as it were, 

 its proper food. The chemist can evolve carbonic acid 

 gas from marble, and he can produce water by the com- 

 bination of its elements, hydrogen and oxygen ; but by 

 no process yet known can he combine carbon and 

 hydrogen with oxygen, in proportions to produce 

 alcohol, excepting by the agency of the yeast plant 

 placed in a saccharine solution. 



i 



