ACTION OF FERMENTS. 7^7 



the animal organism. " We know that all the constituents of 

 these substances are formed from the blood, and that the blood 

 by its nature and constitution is one of the most complex of all 

 existing matters. 



Nature has adapted the blood for the reproduction of every 

 individual part of the organism; its principal character consists 

 in its component parts being subordinate to every attraction. 

 These are in a perpetual state of change or transformation, 

 which is effected in the most various ways through the influ- 

 ence of the different organs. 



The individual organs, such as the stomach, cause all the 

 organic substances conveyed to them which are capable of 

 transformation to assume new forms. The stomach compels 

 the elements of these substances to unite into a compound fitted 

 for the formation of the blood. But the blood possesses no 

 power of causing transformations ; on the contrary, its princi- 

 pal character consists in its readily suffering transformations ; 

 and no other matter can be compared in this respect with it. 



Now it is a well-known fact, that when blood, cerebral sub- 

 stance, gall, pus, and other substances in a state of putrefaction, 

 are laid upon fresh wounds ; vomiting, debility, and at length 

 death, are occasioned. It is also well known that bodies in 

 anatomical rooms frequently pass into a state of decomposition 

 which is capable of imparting itself to the living body, the 

 smallest cut with a knife which has been used in their dissec- 

 tion producing in these cases dangerous consequences. 



The poison of bad sausages belongs to this class of noxious 

 substances. Several hundred cases are known in which death 

 has occurred from the use of this kind of food. In Wirtemberg 

 especially, these cases are very frequent, for there the sausages 

 are prepared from very various materials. Blood, liver, bacon, 

 brains, milk, meal and bread, are mixed together with salt and 

 spices ; the mixture is then put into bladders or intestines, and 

 after being boiled is smoked. When these sausages are well 

 prepared, they may be preserved for months, and furnish a 

 nourishing savoury food ; but when the spices and salt are 

 deficient, and particularly when they are smoked too late or not 

 sufficiently, they undergo a peculiar kind of putrefaction which 

 begins at the centre of the sausage. Without any appreciable 

 escape of gas taking place, they become paler in colour, and 



