FERMENTS, FERMENTATIONS, AND LIFE. 295 
perfect integrity, only one means avails, but that is an in- 
fallible one—that of thoroughly precluding the access to 
them of the aérial germs of vibrios and bacteria. Whether 
we adopt D’Appert’s method and begin by subjecting 
these substances to the action of high temperature, pre- 
serving them after that in hermetically-closed vessels; or 
whether, as we have seen very lately practised by Bous- 
singault, we introduce them into an extremely cold medium 5 
or whether we saturate them with such salts as have an- 
tiseptic properties, in every case they are protected from 
putrefaction by paralyzing the effects of the lower organ- 
isms. The corruption of animals is not more possible than 
the fermentation of grape-juice, barley-wort, milk etc., 
when it is made impossible for the germs to act. This is 
another fact demonstrated by Pasteur. 
We have just used the term antiseptic, that is, capa- 
ble of destroying germs, and preventing the action of fer- 
ments. The interest connected with such substances is 
easily understood. In truth, they are at the present time 
the chief objective point of therapeutic researches. At the 
same time that chemists and physiologists are engaged 
with persevering zeal in studying the functions of micro- 
scopic corpuscles in living Nature, physicians, perceiving 
their manifold and baneful activity in the production of 
disease, are seeking the means of reaching and destroying 
them. Every one knows those principles, like phenic acid, 
which are extracted from pitch, and are also found in smoke, 
to which they impart antiseptic properties that have been 
utilized from time immemorial. Other substances have 
been lately discovered, not less remarkable for their ener- 
getic resistance to fermentation and virus. Among the 
number are the alkaline sulphites and hyposulphites, which 
have been the object of very interesting examination on 
the part of an Italian physician, Polli; the borates and 
silicates of potassa and soda, to which Dumas inyited the 
