DEVELOPMENT OF BACTERIOLOGY 



from the inside of perfect fruit. In order to carry out this experi- 

 ment the straight tube of each flask was drawn out into a fine and 

 firm point in the lamp, and then curved. This fine and closed point 

 was filed round near the end and inserted into the grape while 

 resting upon some hard substance. When the point was felt to 

 touch the support of the grape it was by a slight pressure broken off 

 at the file mark. Then if care had been taken to create a slight 

 vacuum in the flask, a drop of the juice of the grape got into it; the 

 filed point was withdrawn and the aperture immediately closed in 

 the alcohol lamp. This decreased pressure of the atmosphere in the 

 flask was obtained by the following means: After warming the 

 sides of the flask, either in the hands or in the lamp flame, thus 

 causing a small quantity of air to be driven out of the end of the 

 curved neck, this end was closed in the lamp. After the flask was 

 cooled, there was a tendency to suck in the drop of grape-juice in 

 the manner just described. 



"The drop of grape-juice which enters into the flask by this 

 suction ordinarily remains in the curved part of the tube, so that to 

 mix it with the must it was necessary to incline the flask so as to 

 bring the must into contact with the juice and then replace the flask 

 in its normal position. The four series of comparative experiments 

 produced the following results: 



" The first ten flasks containing the grape-must boiled in pure air 

 did not show the production of any organisms. The grape-must 

 could possibly remain in them for an indefinite number of years. 

 Those in the second series, containing the water in which the grapes 

 had been washed separately and together, showed without exception 

 an alcoholic fermentation which in several cases began to appear 

 at the end of forty-eight hours when the experiment took place at 

 ordinary summer temperature. At the same time that the yeast 

 appeared, in the form of white traces, which little by little united 

 themselves in the form of a deposit on the sides of all the flasks, 

 there were seen to form little flakes of Mycelium, often as a single 

 fungoid growth or in combination, these fungoid growths being 

 quite independent of the must or of any alcoholic yeast. Often, also, 

 the Mycoderma vini appeared after some days upon the surface of 

 the liquid. The vibria and the lactic ferments, properly so-called, 

 did not appear on account of the nature of the liquid. 



" The third series of flasks, the washing- water of which had been 

 previously boiled, remained unchanged, as in the first series. Those 

 of the fourth series, in which was the juice of the interior of the 

 grapes, remained equally free from change, although I was not 

 always able, on account of the delicacy of the experiment to eliminate 

 every chance of error. These experiments cannot leave the least 

 doubt in the mind as to the following facts: 



" Grape-must, after heating, never ferments on contact with air, 



