NINETEENTH-CENTURY MEDICINE 



normal position. The four series of comparative ex- 

 periments produced the following results: 



" The first ten flasks containing the grape-must boiled 

 in pure air did not show the production of any organ- 

 ism. The grape-must could possibly remain in them 

 for an indefinite number of years. Those in the second 

 series, containing the water in which the grapes had 

 been washed separately and together, showed without 

 exception an alcoholic fermentation which in several 

 cases began to appear at the end of forty-eight hours 

 when the experiment took place at ordinary summer 

 temperature. At the same time that the yeast ap- 

 peared, in the form of white traces, which little by 

 little united themselves in the form of a deposit on the 

 sides of all the flasks, there were seen to form little 

 flakes of Mycellium, often as a single fungoid growth 

 or in combination, these fungoid growths being quite 

 independent of the must or of any alcoholic yeast. 

 Often, also, the My coder ma vini appeared after some 

 days upon the surface of the liquid. The Vibria and 

 the lactic ferments properly so called did not appear 

 on account of the nature of the liquid. 



"The third series of flasks, the washing- water in 

 which had been previously boiled, remained unchanged, 

 as in the first series. Those of the fourth series, in 

 which was the juice of the interior of the grapes, re- 

 mained equally free from change, although I was not 

 always able, on account of the delicacy of the experi- 

 ment, to eliminate every chance of error. These 

 periments cannot leave the least doubt in the mind 

 as to the following facts : 



" Grape-must, after heating, never ferments on con- 



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