CAGNIARD-LATOUR, SCHWANN, HELMHOLTZ 



61 



to the mind of Thenard to consider it as anything but a 

 chemical compound. As for the intervention of the 

 oxygen, that also was only chemistry. But at this 

 time there appeared in science a new idea, founded on an 

 old observation, made for the first time in 1680 by Leu- 

 wenhoeckj then by Desmazieres in 1825, and renewed in 



FIG. 7. Top yeast of beer. 



Young. 



Old. 



1835, almost simultaneously, in Germany by Kutzing 

 and Schwann, and in France by Cagniard-Latour. 

 Subjecting the yeast to a microscopical examination, all 

 these observers had seen that it consisted of ovoid or 

 spherical globules of an organized aspect (Fig. 7), which 

 Cagniard-Latour had the merit to consider as clearly 

 living beings, "Capable of reproducing themselves by 



