THEORY OF FERMENTATION 323 



thing is absurd. The following, for instance, is the theory 

 of the fermentation of the vintage, according to M. Fremy . 7 



"To speak here of alcoholic fermentation alone," 8 our 

 author says, " I hold that in the production of wine it is 

 the juice of the fruit itself that, in contact with air, pro- 

 duces grains of ferment, by the transformation of the al- 

 buminous matter; Pasteur, on the other hand, maintains 

 that the fermentation is produced by germs existing out- 

 side of the grapes." 



Now what bearing on this purely imaginary theory can 

 the fact have, that a whole fruit, immersed in carbonic 

 acid gas, immediately produces alcohol and carbonic acid? 

 In the preceding passage which we have borrowed from 

 M. Fremy, an indispensable condition of the transforma- 

 tion of the albuminous matter is the contact with air and 

 the crushing of the grapes. Here, however, we are dealing 

 with uninjured fruits in contact with carbonic acid gas. 

 Our theory, on the other hand, which, we may repeat, 

 we have advocated since 1861, maintains that all cells be- 

 come fermentative when their vital action is protracted 

 in the absence of air, which are precisely the conditions that 

 hold in the experiments on fruits immersed in carbonic 

 acid gas. The vital energy is not immediately suspended* 



f Comptes rendus, meeting of January isth, 1872. 



A a matter of fact, M. Fremy applies his theory of hemi-organism, not 

 only to the alcoholic fermentation of grape juice, but to all other fermenta- 

 tions. The following passage occurs in one of his notes (Comptes rendus 

 dt f Academic, t. Ixxv., p.^979, October 28th, 1872): 



" Experiments on Germinated Barley. The object of these was to show 

 that when barley, left to itself in sweetened water, produces in succession 

 alcoholic, lactic, butyric, and acetic fermentations, these modifications are 

 brought about by ferments which are produced inside the grains themselves, 

 and not by atmospheric germs. More than forty different experiments were 

 devoted to this part of my work." 



Need we add that this assertion is based on no substantial foundation? 

 The cells belonging to the grains of barley, or their albuminous contents, 

 never do produce cells of alcoholic ferment, or of lactic ferment, or butyric 

 vibrios. Whenever those ferments appear, they may be traced to germs 

 of those organisms, diffused throughout the interior of the grains, or adher- 

 ing to the exterior surface, or existing in the water employed, or on the 

 side of the vessels used. There are many ways of demonstrating this, of 

 which the following is one: Since the results of our experiments have 

 shown that sweetened water, phosphates, and chalk very readily give rise 

 to lactic and butyric fermentations, what reason is there for supposing that 

 if we substitute grains of barley for chalk, the lactic and butyric ferments 

 will spring from those grains, in consequence of a transformation of their 

 cells and albuminous substances? Surely there is no ground for maintain- 

 ing that they are produced by hemi-organism, since a medium composed 

 of sugar, or chalk, or phosphates of ammonia, potash, or magnesia con- 

 tain* no albuminous substances. This is an indirect but irresistible argu- 

 ment against the hemi-organism theory. 



