180 MODERN SCIENCE READER 



wise, and it is shown how subcutaneous injections of yeast 

 may possibly be used to destroy the germs of many dire 

 diseases. Again, in proof of the medicinal effects these 

 microscopical cells will occasion, I might have quoted the, 

 perhaps hypothetical, story of the Hertfordshire farmer, 

 who went home late one night and drank a pint of yeast in 

 mistake for buttermilk. He arose three hours earlier next 

 morning. Indeed, the thoughts which crowd around these 

 simple cells partake of a character almost universal. To 

 yeast we owe the nation's bread, and the nation's second 

 necessity, beer; and many other needful liquors are ours 

 through the medium of yeast. So wide is the survey that 

 the disjointed reflections I have ventured to place before 

 you form but a tithe of those our theme might legitimately 

 evoke. But all these must now be passed over, and we 

 will conclude with one modest Faust dream. If Croft-Hill 

 is right, and the action of maltase is reversible ; if Emmer- 

 ling's discovery that one ferment may undo the work of 

 another be a true interpretation of Nature, then might we 

 not expect the same reasoning to apply, under conditions 

 yet unknown, to those ferments which convert living proto- 

 plasm into relatively dead fatty, connective cartilage or 

 bone tissue? Metchnikoff has declared this process is the 

 invariable symptom of advancing years, and we may quite 

 legitimately ask in what manner this apparent discovery 

 of constructive ferments will ultimately affect such momen- 

 tous problems. 



