16 MICROBES AND HEALTH. 



undergoing transformation, from one thing or being 

 to another. The result of such changes supports the 

 living and reduces the dead. It liberates the elements 

 after life is extinct, thus permitting them to again 

 enter into active form. This is but a process of fer- 

 mentation; it is a chemical change where something 

 new is being produced. All changes that take place 

 in organic matter are through the medium of these 

 little germ cells ; other changes are produced by chem- 

 icals, but with these we have little to do except for 

 mechanical purposes. 



The soil is the great medium of exchange through 

 which minerals or chemicals find their way into organic 

 structures, first supplying the various plant foods, and 

 from them to the animal. The changes produced by 

 chemicals, like those produced by the germ cells, are 

 also a process of fermentation. 



Fermentation. 



To get a better understanding of fermentation, it 

 may be stated that fermentation is the splitting up,, 

 or separating the parts or elements of a substance, 

 any substance, and the formation of new ones. These 

 changes are taking place constantly both in the animal 

 and in the vegetable kingdoms, and even the granite 

 rock falls and crumbles to dust. "Throughout all na- 

 ture there is a ceaseless change. The water we drink 

 and the food we eat have been used thousands of times 

 before, and will again pass on in their endless round 

 to develop other forms and new life. We are but parts 

 of a great system, and the elements we use are not our 



