274 STUDIES ON FERMKXTATIOX. 



that all cells become fermentative Avhen their vital action is 

 protracted in the absence of air, which are precisely the con- 

 ditions that hold in the experiment on fruits immersed in 

 carbonic acid gas. The vital energy is not immediately 

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

 Consequently, 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 fermentation 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 crushing 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 directly 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 pro- 

 duction of these phenomena of fermentation in fruits sur- 

 rounded with carbonic acid gas ; whilst the theory, which sees 

 in fermentation a consequence of vital energy in absence of air, 

 finds in these facts the strictest confirmation of an express 

 prediction, 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 anj^ serious experi- 

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

 formation of albuminous substances into organized ferments 

 had been advocated long before it was taken up by M. 

 Fremy. It no longer commands the slightest credit, nor 

 do any observers of note any longer give it the least atten- 

 tion ; it might even be said that it has become a subject 

 of ridicule. 



An attempt has also been made to prove that we have con- 

 tradicted ourselves, inasmuch as in 1860 we published our 

 opinion that alcoholic fermentation can never occur without a 

 simultaneous occurrence of organization, development, and 

 multiplication of globules ; or continued life, carried ou from 



