380 Notes on the Vibrio Family. 



acidulating neutral substances with acetic, lactic, oxalic, or tar- 

 taric acid cause microphytes to take the place of microzoaries, 

 and by the converse process of diluting the acids with water, 

 substitute the niicrozoaries for the microphytes. 



The bearing of the preceding observations upon sundry 

 questions propounded in my paper on the vinegar plant will be 

 obvious, but it is a pity M. Lemaire has introduced so much 

 confusion by a very loose employment of the terms micro- 

 zoaries and microphytes. Many of his "animals" possess no 

 animal characteristics whatever, and many of his microphytes 

 may be merely some of the so-called "animals" in another 

 stage of development. In the vinegar plant the bacterium 

 bodies which, according to his nomenclature, would be 

 "animals," live and thrive in any acid fluid. 



In further discordance with M. Pasteur, Mr. Lemaire 

 believes that, in the process of vinegar manufacture, a direct 

 oxydation occurs as well as that exerted by the ferment, and 

 that the mycoderma vini is able to transform alcohol into 

 acetic acid. He remarks that, " in watching the fermentation 

 from its commencement in the must of wine, in vinegar, and in 

 the decomposition of vinegar he has proved the presence of the 

 same mycoderms operating in all these transformations. Upon 

 this, it may be remarked, that the oxydation by which alcohol 

 is transformed into acetic acid, and the further oxydation by 

 which that acid may be again transformed into water and car- 

 bonic acid, are processes of the same kind, and naturally 

 produced by the same ferment, and we should get no vinegar at 

 all except for the fact that, while the vinegar plant has 

 plenty of sugar to act upon, it does not destroy the vinegar it 

 has already made. If, however, the yeast plant and the vine- 

 gar plant be specifically the same, the condition of the plant 

 must differ, or we could not depend on obtaining alcohol by 

 putting yeast-cells into a saccharine solution, and be equally 

 sure of getting vinegar if the vinegar plant was immersed in 

 another solution of precisely the same kind. 



M. Lemaire considers that his remarks throw light upon 

 certain diseases in which mici'ophytes appear on the skin — a 

 state of things ho ascribes to the acidity of the secretions ; but 

 he does not tell us whether he has ascertained that the secre- 

 tions are more acid in such disorders than in others in which no 

 microphytes are seen. 



It is often a subject of regret in reading French scientific 

 works that our distinguished neighbours do not pay enough at- 

 tention to what other folks do. M.M. Pasteur and Lemaire 

 would both have arrived at more definite results if they had 

 taken into their consideration the researches of Oohn, Burnett, 

 Arlidgc, and others, into the history of organisms, to which 



