£&*>^^-*? 



C&** / *i 



FERMENTATION AND PUTREFACTION. 27* 



CHAPTER III. 



Fermentation and Putrefaction. 



Several bodies appear to enter spontaneously into the states 

 of fermentation and putrefaction, particularly such as contain 

 nitrogen. Now it is very remarkable that very small quantities 

 of these substances, in a state of fermentation or putrefaction, 

 possess the power of causing unlimited quantities of similar mat- 

 ters to pass into the same state. Thus, a small quantity of the 

 juice of grapes in the act of fermentation, added to a large 

 quantity of the same fluid, which is not fermenting, induces the 

 .state of fermentation in the whole mass. So likewise the most 

 minute portion of milk, paste, juice of the beet-root, flesh, or 

 blood, in the state of putrefaction, causes fresh milk, paste, juice 

 of the beet-root, flesh, or blood, to pass into the same condition 

 wJien in contact wit!; them. 



These changes evidently differ from the class of common de- 

 compositions effected by chemical affinity ; they are chemical 

 actions, conversions, or decompositions, excited by contact with 

 bodies already in the same conation, in which the elements, in 

 consequence of the disturbance, arrange themselves anew, ac- 

 cording to their affinities. In order to form a clear idea of these 

 processes, analogous but less complicated phenomena must pre- 

 viously be studied. 



The compound nature of the molecules of an organic body, 

 and the phenomena presented by them when in relation with other 

 matters, point out the true cause of these transformations. Evi- 

 dence is afforded even by simple bodies, that in the formation of 

 combinations, the force with which the combining elements ad- 

 here to one another is inversely proportional to the number of 

 simple atoms in the compound molecule. Thus* protoxide of 



