ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 539 
with the vapour condensed from the atmosphere of marshes 
of Sologne has led the same author to identical results. But 
the air is not the only receptacle, nor the only vehicle of the 
zymotic germs; the solids and fluids, organic or inorganic, 
are apt to contain them; the question was to find them, 
demonstrate their presence, and determine the role assigned 
to them ; this has been the object of the principal researches 
which we are now about to describe. It is well known that 
in all organic bodies and substances there existsmall corpuscles, 
designated by the generic name of molecular granules, which 
are animated by the Browmian movement, which movement 
has been diversely explained, but which is generally consi¬ 
dered as a phenomenon of the physical order. These gra¬ 
nulations, called microzymas by M. Bechamp, wBich are 
supposed to be the germs of the organisms, ferment. They 
exist in the living creatures in the normal state ; they are 
found in the sap of trees and vegetables, in the tissues of 
animals and the liquids which surround them, &c. Their 
presence seems to be in proportion to the exercise of such or 
such function. It is thus that, according to M. Ricque de 
Mouchy, they are concurrent in vegetables, with the ripening 
of the fruit, and that in animals as well as in vegetables 
they have for mission to elaborate certain matter for the 
incessant regeneration of the organic elements. 
The microzymas of the liver have been principally noticed 
by MM. Bechamp and Estor. The glucogen secretion of 
this gland is a fecula in a particular state of solubility. These 
authors have made researches to find out which was the 
soluble ferment or the zymas wBich was capable of sacchari- 
ficing this fecula. To this effect they isolated the granula¬ 
tions which constitute one of the constant elements of the 
hepatic cells. These granules (microzymas) are, like all the 
others, animated with the Brownian movement; they are 
inputrescent, their insolubility in acetic acid and caustic 
potass shows that they are neither adipose nor albuminous. 
MM. Bechamp and Estor have put these microzymas by the 
side of a quantity of starch, the starch w^as dissolved, but there 
was no transformation of the fecula into glucose. On the 
contrary, by acting with portions of the liver reduced to a 
pulp, the starch saccharification of the fecula took place. 
According to them this saccharification is due not to the 
microzymas, but to the zymas which it produces with the 
albuminous matter of the hepatic cells. 
The microzymas do not only assist in or insure the exercise 
of certain functions, they seem also to contribute to the de¬ 
velopment or the transmission of certain maladies, as is showm 
