210 The Minute Structure of the Vinegar Plant. 



and perform functions of a different kind. Bacteriums, etc., 

 form a well-known pellicle on the surface of organic solutions, 

 and this pellicle, as M. Pasteur tells us, is usually associated 

 with moulds and mildews, an observation coinciding with the 

 statement of Dr. Burnett that torula and vibrions are com- 

 monly found together. 



If we were to follow M. Pasteur in calling the " ferments of 

 putrefaction" vibrions, we might call similar small bodies con- 

 cerned in vinous or acetous fermentation bacteriums ; that is to 

 say, supposing we could connect such bodies with all processes 

 of that sort, purely chemical ones excepted. When putrescence 

 occurs in a liquid exposed to air, M. Pasteur represents the 

 vibrions as determining changes in the body of the liquid, 

 while the bacteriums and mucors burn the products of the 

 vibrion action, and bring them back to the simple condition of 

 binary compounds. 



The Intellectual Observer-, vol. iii., p. 271 (May, 1863), 

 contains another of M. Pasteur's papers, in which that dis- 

 tinguished investigator expresses the belief ' ' that a considerable 

 number of beings that can live without air determine different 

 kinds of fermentation." Those without motion he calls vege- 

 table, and those with motion animal, thus following Ehrenberg 

 into untenable ground. In a previous paper, given in the In- 

 tellectual Observer for September, 1862, " On a New Process 

 of Vinegar-Making," the same author shows that the myco- 

 derms of wine and vinegar act as agents for conveying the 

 oxygen of the air to a crowd of organic substances ; and in the 

 still earlier paper (already cited),* he speaks of this oxydizing 

 faculty as existing in various degrees among the mucedines, and 

 also among the smallest of the infusoria-, by which we presume 

 he means members of the vibrion family. Are we not, from 

 these facts, justified in considering that the oxydizing vibrion 

 may be closely connected with the fungi of similar action? and 

 towards this the minute structure of the vinegar plant 

 points. 



The Miarogra/pMc Dictionary observes that, from various ob- 

 servations, the vinegar plant may be regarded as the mycelium 

 of Pcnicillium gla/ucwnvf vegetating actively, and increasing 

 also by crops of gonidia, or gemma?. It adds " that the monili- 

 form growth is, at the same time, scarcely distinguishable from 

 the yeast plant by any satisfactory character, and repeated 

 observations strongly impress us with the idea that these 

 objects arc all referable to one species — the vinegar plant 

 being the form of vegetative growth taking place at low or 

 ordinary temperatures in highly saccharine liquids; while the 



*'' See IMTBLI/EOTI w OB6BBVBB, vol. i., p. 242. 



t The JPenicillivm glaucum is the common blue mould. 



