Notes on the Vibrio Family. 379 



state of their contents after they had been kept for some time 

 in a warm place, he concluded that " putrefaction commences 

 in a closed vessel by help of the oxygen it contains ; this gas 

 permits bacterium, vibrio, and spirillum to grow and live for 

 a certain time, but when the oxygen is consumed they die, and 

 putrefaction is arrested." On reference to the September 

 number (1863) of the Intellectual Observes, p. 101, it will 

 be seen that M. Pasteur stated that when putrefaction occurred 

 in closed vessels monas crepusculum and bacterium termo first 

 appeared and exhausted the oxygeu, and then, if the liquid 

 contained no fecund germ of the vibrion ferments, it remained 

 without change. This he said was rare, but he had met with 

 several examples. Most frequently, however, in his experi- 

 ments the vibrions appeared and the putrefaction proceeded. 



M. Lemaire disputes M. Pasteur's assertion that there 

 exists special ferments that assist each kind of fermentation \ 

 and he states that in his own experiments bacterium, vibrio, 

 spirillum, and monas transformed a saccharine solution into 

 alcohol, and then into vinegar. In the fermentation of wheat 

 flour he observed, in the course of fifteen days, bacterium, 

 vibrio, spirillum, amoeba, monas, and Paramecium, after which 

 came what he calls microphytes — a term which most observers 

 would consider ought to include the so-called vibrion family, 

 or most of its members. He distinguishes two epochs in 

 putrid fermentations. During the foetid stage he observed 

 thirty species of microzoaries. The clearing stage, he states, 

 is announced, when the operation is carried on in the light, by 

 the appearance of the green matter, after which the infusoria 

 that existed in the foetid stage gradually disappear, and are re- 

 placed by euglena, vorticella, and protococcus. In this case he 

 considers the putrefaction is chiefly due to the oxygen evolved 

 by the green matter. 



In the case of neutral liquids, animal or vegetable, he 

 affirms that microzoaries begin the decomposition, and when 

 the liquids become acid, microphytes appear, and the animal- 

 cules grow motionless. In the melon, in which saccharine and 

 nitrogenous matter is associated with a small portion of acid, 

 animalcules and moulds appear simultaneously, while, in sub- 

 stances decidedly acid he believes microphytes begin the 

 decomposition, and ' ( when the acids are transformed, so as no 

 longer to hurt the microzoaries, these little animals appear, and 

 with them other chemical phenomena." The appearance of 

 species belonging to the animal or vegetable kingdom he 

 considers subordinated to the chemical composition of the 

 substance. 



The influence of acids he finds so great, in determining the 

 order of the appearance of. ferments, that he can by feebly 



