26 VINEGAR, CIDER, AND FRUIT-WINES. 



and this mother of vinegar has also been used for the fabrication 

 of vinegar on a large scale. To Pasteur, however, belongs the 

 incontestable merit of having more accurately examined the rela- 

 tions of these organisms to the formation of vinegar. These 

 examinations gave rise to his experiments on the diseased altera- 

 tion of wine, which were later on succeeded by his researches on 

 the formation of wine vinegar. 



Pasteur found that upon the surface of every fluid capable by 

 reason of its composition of being converted into vinegar, organ- 

 isms develop immediately after the commencement of the forma- 

 tion of vinegar. He recognized these organisms as fungoid plants 

 of a low order and called them Mycoderma aceti. More recent 

 researches on the botanical nature of these plants show them to 

 belong to the group of lowest fungoid organisms to which the 

 term bacteria or schizomycdes has been applied. 



These plants consist of a single, generally globular or filiform 

 cell, their special characteristic; being their mode of propagation, 

 which is effected by the division of the cell into two and then a 

 separation or splitting of both. 



The exceedingly minute size of the schizomycetes and their 

 great resemblance to each other make their accurate determina- 

 tion very difficult, and, hence, it is customary to name the better 

 known species in accordance with the chemical products they 

 form or in accordance with the phenomena they produce. Among 

 the first kind may be classed those which effect the formation of 

 acetic, lactic, butyric acids ; other very little known bacteria must 

 be considered as the cause of the so-called nitric acid fermenta- 

 tion, and again others appear in putrid fermentation. A special 

 group of bacteria reaches development in animal organisms and 

 give rise to terrible diseases, some causing rinderpest, others tuber- 

 culosis, and various other maladies. Cholera and other epidemics 

 have also recently been found to be due to certain bacteria. 



The bacteria causing disease are of course very interesting to 

 the physician ; but to the manufacturer of vinegar a thorough 

 knowledge of the conditions of life governing the vinegar bacteria 

 is of the utmost importance, in order to conduct the fabrication 

 in such a manner that disturbances shall rarely occur, and, should 

 they happen, that he may be able readily to remove them. It may, 



