GEKMS. 17 



own, for in nature all is common. Those elements 

 of which our bodies are formed a few months ago may 

 have waved in the forest tree, or in the field as grain, 

 may have frozen on Arctic snows, bleached on torrid 

 plains, beautified the poet's brain, or become beef on 

 the butcher's block, to strengthen the blacksmith's 

 arm." All this is but a process of fermentation. 



A plant selects and absorbs certain elements from 

 the soil, reforms and fits them into a part of its own 

 structure; dead or inert matter becomes living matter; 

 that is fermentation, and is produced by the little 

 germ cells which constitute the plant. By the action 

 of certain germ cells, a dead body is decomposed; the 

 complex organism is reduced to simpler forms or ele- 

 ments ; that is fermentation, though putrefaction is the 

 term usually applied to fermentation of dead matter, 

 but this, too, is caused by these little germ cells. 



Examining these changes more closely it may be 

 stated that a seed, any seed, consists essentially of two 

 substances, starch and gluten, in which is contained a 

 little germ cell. Both the starch and gluten are in- 

 soluble in water, yet both are needed to support the 

 germ cell in its process of development, and through 

 the medium of the warm moist earth, nature has pro- 

 vided that a chemical change shall take place. The 

 gluten is first converted into a substance called diastase, 

 and the diastase has the power of converting the starch 

 into glucose or grape sugar; and as the change con- 

 tinues the sugar breaks up into alcohol, carbonic acid 

 gas and water, which aid in supplying nourishment 

 until the little germ, through a process of division, can 



