304 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
second-hand from other artists. But when we have said this we have 
expressed ourselves to the fullest extent that adverse criticism can urge us. 
There is a good deal that is most interesting in the hook ; and although, of 
course, it does not clearly define many of the points, it is needless to observe 
that this results from the fact that few of the great questions — those which 
have formed the discussions that took place some years ago between Baron 
Liebig and M. Pasteur — are even at the present moment in anything like a 
settled condition. M. Schiitzenberger, who is evidently of German origin, 
though attached to the laboratories of the Sorbonne, begins of course with 
the history of the subject, and treats us to several pages on this 
matter. And here we might observe that dealing with questions like 
the present one is utterly impossible in anything like the space at the 
writer’s command. So this chapter might well have been omitted. The 
following are the headings of the several subsequent sections : — Alco- 
holic Fermentation; Alcoholic Ferments; Composition of Ferments; 
Function of Yeast ; Action of various Agents on Alcoholic Fermentation ; 
Can nothing but Alcoholic Yeast excite Alcoholic Fermentation P Mannitic 
Fermentation of Sugar ; Lactic Fermentation ; Ammoniacal Fermentation : 
Butyric Fermentation and Putrefaction ; Fermentation by Oxidation ; Ap- 
plication of the Researches of 31. Pasteur ; Albumenoid Substances ; Origin 
of Ferments ; Proteids ; Soluble Ferments ; and last, but not least, On the 
Origin of Ferments. There is nothing new in this book to those who have 
regularly read the u Comptes rendus ” for the past twelve years. But for 
English readers alone there will be found an immense mine of valuable 
information, with reference more especially to the ideas of M. Pasteur. It is 
singular, however, that much as is the knowledge that has been obtained 
on the subject of fermentation generally, so little should have been done in 
the investigation of those diseases which are known to have their origin in 
the presence of certain fermenting materials within the body of the animal 
affected. On this point the author says — referring to a page which he has 
been quoting from a former work on M. Davaines inquiries — that 11 during 
the ten years that have elapsed since this was written, skilful experimental- 
ists, guided by the same ideas, among whom I may mention Pasteur himself 
[researches during the cholera epidemic], have studied this subject with 
great care ; and yet I must admit that there has been no result from these 
inquiries ; the question of the etiology of infectious diseases has made no 
important advance ; the observation made by M. Davaine remains without 
any additional support.” Those who remember the nature of Davaine’s 
inquiries are aware that they were made upon animals infected with malig- 
nant boils. 
On the subject of the French work that has been done on the question of 
fermentation, the reader will find ample details given, while the style is 
generally a most pleasant one ; and though the book is deficient in its prac- 
tical details, nevertheless it is an important, and therefore a welcome, addi- 
tion to our literature. 
