424 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



plex body known as pyrogallic acid. Here, all the 



mere 



But in those processes which are most familiarly 

 known as fermentations^ some of the higher products 

 constitute what we 



know as ^ living ' matter, and 



from 



specks or particles ^. This is what occurs in the 



vinous, and all those more or less putrid fermenta- 

 tions of animal and vegetable substances with which 

 living matter is invariably and necessarily associated. 

 These are all of them exceedingly complex processes ^^ 

 which are as yet very imperfectly understood. The 

 results of the experiments of many investigators, how- 



com 



>el us to believe that living matter is one 



r 



of the products, in these fermentations. 



Double simultaneous changes of a synthetic and 

 analytic character are familiar enough to chemists. 

 When olefiant gas (C^ H^), or the vapour of alcohol or 

 ether, is passed through red hot tubes, a complex body 

 known as naphthalene (C^^H^) is obtained in addition 

 to such lower products as marsh gas (C H^), carbon 

 and hydrogen. Several acids when heated yield water 

 and a di-acid : thus tartaric acid yields di-tartaric 

 acid, whilst glycol yields di-glycol, and even tri- and 

 tetra -glycol. More notable^ however, than the oc- 



V ■ 



^ See pp. 77-79. 



2 Even in the vinous fermentation there are, as Pasteur has shown, 

 non-volatile products, in addition to such derivatives as succinic acid, 

 glycerine, alcohol, and carbonic acid. 



10 



1 



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