BASTIAN. 37 



chemical means, claiming that this production is not properly 

 by fermentation, and cite the fact that the oil of almonds and 

 a host of other substances naturally vegetable products may 

 be produced by the chemists through purely chemical pro- 

 cesses. Dr. Bastian now claims that both processes of the 

 production of vinegar are fermentative, and that the second 

 form (vital) is a more fully developed form of the first 

 (chemical), and that the one, under favoring conditions, will 

 pass over into the other without any introduction of germs. 



Other scientists and experimentalists have very generally 

 denied the correctness of Dr. Bastian's results, and set up 

 the claim that he has not used sufficient care in the exclusion 

 of germs, or that the heat to which his infusions were ex- 

 posed was not sufficiently high, or not repeated sufficiently 

 often, to destroy germs or spores not yet hatched. Moreover, 

 other experimenters have failed to confirm his results. What- 

 ever be the final judgment as to the correctness of Dr. Bastian's 

 views, it is certain that this course of experiments and the 

 discussion which they invoked greatly extended our know- 

 ledge of the preserving of fruit in cans, so that we are now 

 able to preserve articles which previously had resisted our 

 efforts. One of these is green corn, which seems to require that 

 it be sealed up at the boiling temperature, and then boiled for 

 a number of hours each day or two, until five or six boilings 

 have been had. 



This is accounted for in this way. The spores of certain 

 organisms find green corn a very suitable soil for their de- 

 velopment, and while the boiling temperature will destroy 

 the developed organisms it will not aifect the spores. There- 

 fore these must be hatched and then destroyed. Hence the 

 intervals of boiling must be continued from time to time, 

 until all spores are hatched and destroyed. After which the 

 corn will keep for any length of time. 



