FERMENTATION AND DECAY. 229 



quence of which, the particles of the body put in 

 motion obey other affinities or their own natural 

 attractions. 



But if it is true, as we have just shown it to be, 

 that mechanical motion is sufficient to cause a 

 change of condition in many bodies, it cannot be 

 doubted that a body in the act of combination or 

 decomposition is capable of imparting the same 

 condition of motion or activity in which its atoms 

 are to certain other bodies : or in other words, to 

 enable other bodies with which it is in contact to 

 enter into combinations, or suifer decompositions. 



The reality of this influence has been already 

 sufficiently proved by the facts derived from in- 

 organic chemistry, but it is of much more frequent 

 occurrence in the relations of organic matters, and 

 causes very striking and wonderful phenomena. 



By the terms fermentation, putrefaction, and 

 eremacausis, are meant those changes in form and 

 properties which compound organic substances 

 undergo when separated from the organism, and 

 exposed to the influence of water and a certain 

 temperature. Fermentation and putrefaction are 

 examples of that kind of decomposition which we 

 have named transformations ; the elements of the 

 bodies capable of undergoing these changes arrange 

 themselves into new combinations, in which the 

 constituents of water generally take a part. 



Eremacausis (or decay) differs from fermentation 

 and putrefaction, inasmuch as it cannot take place 



