726 TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
the honour to lay before the Academy, have exclusive re¬ 
ference to the cause of the phenomena. This was the first 
point to be elucidated, and I believe that I have succeeded. 
It is, however, an extensive subject, and I am persuaded that 
I shall have much to add hereafter to my first impressions. 
I therefore ask the indulgence of the members of • the 
Academy. 
The more general results of my experiments are very 
simple. They are that putrefaction is determined by or¬ 
ganized ferments of the vibrion genus. Ehrenberg has de¬ 
scribed six species of vibrions, to which he has given the fol¬ 
lowing names: 
]. Vibrio lineala. 4. Vibrio rugula. 
2. Vibrio tremulans. 5. Vibrio prolifer. 
3. Vibrio subtilis. 6. Vibrio bacillus. 
These six species were partly known to the microscopists 
of the last century, and have been found by all who have since 
occupied themselves with infusoria. I reserve the question 
respecting their identity, or the difference of the species, also 
the variety of their forms, subordinated to the change of the 
condition in which they exist. I accept them provisionally, 
just as they have been described. In whatever way, I arrive 
at the conclusion that the six species of vibrions are six 
species of animal ferments, and that these ferments are the 
results of putrefaction. Moreover, I have discovered that all 
these vibrions can exist without free oxygen gas; further, that 
they die when brought in contact with it, or when nothing 
protects them from the direct action of it on them. 
This fact, which I announced to the Academy for the first 
time two years ago, and of which I have recently given 
several examples, namely, that in ferments existed animal¬ 
cules of the vibrion species which could live without free 
oxygen gas ; this being only a particular case, which belongs 
to the mode of fermentation, and is perhaps the most general 
in nature. The conditions under which putrefaction is 
manifested may vary very much. Let us suppose, in the 
first instance, that it is a liquid, that is to say, putrescible 
matter of which all the parts have been exposed to the con¬ 
tact of air. Of two things one must occur, either this liquid 
would be in a vessel protected from the air, or in an un¬ 
covered one, the opening of which would be more or less 
wide. I will examine successively what takes place in both 
cases. It is a well known fact that putrefaction is a certain 
time before it declares itself. This varies according to cir¬ 
cumstances, depending upon the temperature, neutrality, 
