54C ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
in a special malady of silk worms, in which the eggs which 
contain microzymas cause death. The results of the re¬ 
searches by M" Bechamp are that microzymas have their 
maladies, and that they can transmit these maladies to the 
organisms of which they form an integral part, or to those 
into which they penetrate. 
It is not exclusively in the organic kingdom that microzymas 
are found, it has also been ascertained that they exist in 
the mineral, in chalk, according to Bechamp, and in the 
carbonate of soda of commerce. According to Ricque de 
Mouchy, these microzymas possess the property of reducing 
the nitrates and sulphites in some ferments, and hence the 
presence of sulphurets in the mud of the principal thorough¬ 
fares. These are the numerous functions which are the 
attributes of the microzymas, but to complete their history 
two points remained to be solved—first, how they accomplish 
these functions; secondly, are they germs of infusorii, and 
has their transformation been observed to the completion 
of development into the form of the microzoa, and that of 
microphytes? In respect to the first of these questions expe¬ 
rience has sufficiently demonstrated that the microzymas 
comport themselves like ferments, a fact which has been 
proved by several experiments made by M. Ricque de 
Mouchy and M. Bechamp. We now come to the second 
and most important question, viz., whether the microzymas 
are the germs of infusorii? The microscopical examination 
of the vapour condensed from the atmospheric air in the 
barraeks and in the marshes, enabled M, Lemaire to 
follow them, not quite step by step, but at least in their 
principal transformation into bacterias or vibrious bodies of 
a pheric ovoid or cylindric form, which hav^ been considered 
by him as germs. MM. Bechamp and Estor have made 
experiments which have enabled them likewise to follow the 
successive transformation of the mycrozymas into bacterias. 
To this effect they have observed portions of liver exposed to 
the action of the air, or put in contact with a solution of 
sugar, or else with some starch to which creosote had been 
added, they have found that even in the centre of the sub¬ 
stance under experiment, consequently, without any external 
influence to produce germs, the mycrozymas lost their forms, 
united in bunches, congregating themselves in a manner to 
forrn finally bacterias, either collected or isolated. M. Duvaine 
in inoculating plants in which the production of protozoa 
is very favorable, has observed all the forms they assume 
from the appearance of the granulation to the aspect of the 
filaments of two or three segments in length. These cor- 
