FERMENTATION. 65 



their work in the interior of the mass by the developed 

 germs of the anaerobies, which not only do not require 

 oxygen for their life, but which oxygen actually kills. 

 Little by little, at length, by this work of fermentation 

 and slow combustion, the phenomenon is accomplished. 

 Whether in the free atmosphere, or under the earth, 

 which is always more or less impregnated with air, all 

 animal and vegetable matters end by disappearing. 

 To arrest these phenomena an extremely low tem- 

 perature is required. It is thus that in the ice of the 

 Polar regions antediluvian elephants have been found 

 perfectly intact. The microscopic organisms could not 

 live in so cold a temperature. These facts still further 

 strengthen all the new ideas as to the important part 

 performed by these infinitely small organisms, which 

 are, in fact, the masters of the world. If we could 

 suppress their work, which is always going on, the 

 surface of the globe, encumbered with organic matters, 

 would soon become uninhabitable. 



