18 



CHAPTER II. 



On the Causes of the Diseases which affect Beek 

 AND Wort. 



From our preceding observations it will be evident that the 

 manufacture of beer, the arrangement of breweries, and all the 

 processes practised by the brewer immediately depend upon this 

 fact, that beer and wort are fluids essentially liable to change. 

 Thus it becomes a matter of extreme importance that we should 

 have an exact knowledge of the causes and nature of the 

 changes which affect our produce, and it may be that this 

 knowledge will lead us to regard the conditions of the brewing 

 industry from a novel point of view, and bring about important 

 modifications in the practices of the trade. We might vainly 

 search the numerous works which have been written on brewing 

 for information respecting the proposed subject of these studies. 

 At the most we should find the diseases to which beer is liable 

 in the course of its manufacture, or afterwards, vaguely hinted 

 at ; perhaps we might be favoured with certain empirical 

 recipes for disguising the evil effects of those diseases. 



It will be our endeavour to demonstrate the truth of the 

 proposition we have already laid down, that every change to 

 which wort and beer are liable is brought about solely by the 

 development of organic ferments, whose germs are being per- 

 petually wafted to and fro in the dust floating through the 

 air, or distributed over the surface of tlie dift'erent materials and 

 utensils used in brewing, such as nuiU, yeast, water, coolers, 



