THE BAVARIAN PROCESS. 29/ 



This oxidation of the gluten then, and the transpo- 

 sition of the atoms of the sugar into alcohol and 

 carbonic acid, are necessarily attendant on each 

 other, so that if the one is arrested the other must 

 also cease. 



Now, the yeast which rises to the surface of the 

 liquid is not the product of a complete decomposi- 

 tion, but is oxidised gluten still capable of under- 

 going a new transformation by the transposition of 

 its constituent elements. By virtue of this condition 

 it has the power to excite fermentation in a solu- 

 tion of sugar ; and if gluten be also present, the de- 

 composing sugar induces its conversion into fresh 

 yeast, so that, in a certain sense, the yeast appears 

 to reproduce itself. 



Yeast of this kind is oxidised gluten in a state of 

 putrefaction, and by virtue of this state it induces a 

 similar transformation in the elements of the sugar. 



The yeast formed during the fermentation of 

 Bavarian beer is oxidised gluten in a state of decay. 

 The process of decomposition which its constituents 

 are suffering, gives rise to a very protracted putrefac- 

 tion (fermentation) in the sugar. The intensity of 

 the action is diminished in so great a degree, that 

 the gluten which the fluid still holds in solution 

 takes no part in it ; the sugar in fermentation does 

 not excite a similar state in the gluten. 



But the contact of the already decaying and pre- 

 cipitated gluten or yeast, causes the eremacausis of 



