THE BAVARIAN PROCESS. 303 



ment when exposed to the action of the oxygen of 

 the air under favourable circumstances. At all 

 events, it is certain that oxygen is the cause of the 

 insoluble condition of gluten ; for yeast is not de- 

 posited on keeping wine, or during the fermen- 

 tation of Bavarian beer, unless oxygen has access 

 to the fluid. 



Now whatever be the form in which the oxygen 

 unites with the gluten whether it combines di- 

 rectly with it or extracts a portion of its hydrogen, 

 forming water the products formed in the interior 

 of the liquid, in consequence of the conversion of 

 the gluten into ferment, will still be the same. Let 

 us suppose that gluten is a compound of another 

 substance with hydrogen, then this hydrogen must 

 be removed during the ordinary fermentation of 

 must and wort, by combining with oxygen, exactly 

 as in the conversion of alcohol into aldehyd by 

 eremacausis. 



In both cases the atmosphere is excluded ; the 

 oxygen cannot, then, be derived from the air, nei- 

 ther can it be supplied by the elements of water, 

 for it is impossible to suppose that the oxygen will 

 separate from the hydrogen of water, for the pur- 

 pose of uniting with the hydrogen of gluten, in 

 order again to form water. The oxygen must, 

 therefore, be obtained from the elements of sugar, 

 a portion of which substance must, in order to 

 the formation of ferment, undergo a different de- 

 composition from that which produces alcohol. 



