TECHNICAL MYCOLOGY: 



THE UTILISATION OF MICRO-ORGANISMS 

 IN THE ARTS AND MANUFACTURES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



I. 



THE THEORY OF SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 



1. Fermentation Physiology is the Science of the Character 

 and Activity of Fermentative Organisms. 



Fermentative Organism is the name given to any minute being of 

 vegetable nature capable of exciting fermentation. Whether any given minute 

 organism is to be considered as a " fermentative organism " or not depends, there- 

 fore, on the answer to the question : " Does it possess the power of causing 

 fermentation ? " 



In studying this subject, the first task that lies before us is to obtain a 

 definition of the term fermentation, or, in other words, to establish the common 

 factor of all the manifold processes classified under that general title. 



This is, however, as will soon be apparent, no light task ; and the probability 

 of our attempts being crowned by a successful result will be greater if we limit 

 the scope of the question at the outset, and for the moment consider the term 

 " fermentation " as applying merely to those phenomena with which it is associated 

 in colloquial language, viz., the conversion of must into wine, wort into beer, 

 wine into vinegar, and fresh milk into sour, &c. To these may also be added the 

 process of putrefaction. 



Adhering to this restriction of the term, let us follow in imagination the 

 path of investigation which has led to the knowledge that all the above-named 

 phenomena are occasioned solely by the activity of minute living organisms, and 

 constitute a manifestation of their vitality ; that fermentation and putrefaction 

 are, in short, not purely chemical molecular transformations, but physiological 



Moreover, history shall be our instructor, and lead us on further, to the com- 

 prehension of those other processes, which, for the present, we assume as standing 

 without the pale of the term " fermentation," but which, nevertheless, should 

 actually be included therein. Such processes are, inter alia, the transformation 

 of ammonia into nitric acid, occurring in the soil of our fields ; the decomposition 



