STUDIES ON FERMENTATIOX. 273 



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

 juice of the fruit itself that, in contact with air, produces grains 

 of ferment, by the transformation of the albuminous matter ; 

 M. Pasteur, on the other hand, maintains that the fermentation 

 is produced by germs existing outside the skin 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 pre- 

 ceding passage, which we have borrowed from M. Fremy, an 

 indispensable condition of the transformation of the albumi- 

 nous 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 



fermentations. The following passage occurs in one of his Notes (Comptes 

 rendus de VAcademie, 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 belong- 

 ing to the grains of barley, or their albuminous contents, never do pro- 

 duce 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 adhering to 

 their exterior surface, or existing in the water employed, or on the sides 

 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 transforma- 

 tion of their cells or albuminous substances ? Surely, there is no ground 

 for maintaining that they are produced by hemi- organism, since a 

 medium composed of sugar, or chalk, or phosphates of ammonia, potash, 

 or magnesia contains no albuminous substances. This is an indirect but 

 irresistible argument against the hemi-organism theory. 



T 



