324 LOUIS PASTEUR 



in their cells, and the latter are deprived of air. Con- 

 sequently, fermentation must result. Moreover, we may 

 add, if we destroy the fruit, or crush it before immersing 

 it in the gas, it no longer produces alcohol or fermenta- 

 tion of any kind, a circumstance that may be attributed 

 to the fact of the destruction of vital action in the crushed 

 fruit. On the other hand, in what way ought this crush- 

 ing to affect the hypothesis of hemi-organism? The crushed 

 fruit ought to act quite as well, or even better than that 

 which is uncrushed. In short, nothing can be more di- 

 rectly opposed to the theory of the mode of manifestation 

 of that hidden force to which the name of hemi-organism 

 has been given, than the discovery of the production of 

 these phenomena of fermentation in fruits surrounded with 

 carbonic acid gas ; whilst the theory, which sees in fermenta- 

 tion a consequence of vital energy in absence of air, finds 

 in these facts the strictest confirmation of an express pre- 

 diction, which from the first formed an integral part of its 

 statement. 



We should not be justified in devoting further time to 

 opinions which are not supported by any serious experi- 

 ment. Abroad, as well as in France, the theory of the 

 transformation of albuminous substances into organized 

 ferments had been advocated long before it had been taken 

 up by M. Fremy. It no longer commands the slightest 

 credit, nor do any observers of note any longer give it 

 the least attention; it might even be said that it has be- 

 come a subject of ridicule. 



An attempt has also been made to prove that we have 

 contradicted ourselves, inasmuch as in 1860 we published 

 our opinion that alcoholic fermentation can never occur 

 without a simultaneous occurrence of organization, develop- 

 ment, and multiplication of globules; or continued life, 

 carried on from globules already formed.' Nothing, how- 



* PASTEUR, Mf moire sur la "fermentation alcoolique, 1860; Annales de 

 Chimie et de Physique. The word globules is here used for cells. In our 

 researches we have always endeavoured to prevent any confusion of ideas. 

 We stated at the beginning of pur Memoir of 1860 that: "We apply the 

 term alcoholic to that fermentation which sugar undergoes under the influ- 

 ence of the ferment known as beer yeast." This is, the fermentation which 

 produces wine and all alcoholic beverages. This, too, is regarded as the 

 type for a host of similar phenomena designated, by general usage, under 

 the generic name of fermentation, and qualified by the name of one of the 







