294 Life and Health 



life known as organized ferments. These ferments, whether 

 they are the commonly used brewer's yeast or any other 

 species of alcoholic ferments, have the power to decompose 

 or break down a large part of the sugar present in the 

 liquid into alcohol, which remains as a poison, and carbon 

 dioxide, which escapes more or less completely. 



Thus man has now forced into his service the latest dis- 

 coveries in science, more especially in bacteriology, that he 

 may manufacture more scientifically and more economically 

 alcoholic beverages of all sorts and kinds. 



It matters little how, when, or where this process of 

 alcoholic fermentation is brought about ; the outcome and 

 the intent are one and the same. The essential thing is to 

 produce an alcoholic beverage which will have a marked physiological 

 effect. This effect is poisonous, and is due solely to the 

 alcoholic constituent, without which man would have little or 

 no desire for an otherwise harmless liquid. 



Experiment 146. The microscopic study of yeast. Draw off by 

 means of a pipette a drop from the sediment of the " working " mix- 

 ture in Experiment 29 and place it on a glass slide. Cover with a thin 

 cover-glass and examine under the high power of the microscope 

 (300 to 400 diameters). Note the yeast cells and the new cells 

 budding from the parent cells. 



Experiment 147. The examination of pathogenic bacteria by 

 means of the microscope. Examine with the microscope prepared 

 slides of culture of the bacteria that produce diphtheria (Fig. 159), 

 typhoid fever (Fig. 158), consumption (Fig. 92), and such other 

 slides of pathogenic bacteria as can be readily obtained from 

 dealers in microscopical supplies. 



